“I should have educated myself more,” said Leslie Gammon
Credit: WFMY News 2/YouTube
NEED TO KNOW
- Leslie Gammon used telehealth services to obtain GLP-1 medication for weight loss without in-person doctor visits
- A dosage error led to severe symptoms and hospitalization, with doctors confirming she suffered a GLP-1 overdose
- Gammon is recovering from the ordeal and has stopped using GLP-1s, now focusing on diet and exercise for weight loss
A woman ended up in the emergency room after overdosing on a GLP-1.
Leslie Gammon — a 54-year-old retired teacher from North Carolina — was struggling with menopause symptoms when she decided to try a GLP-1 medication to help with weight loss.
Instead of going through her doctor, she chose to use two different telehealth companies to get the medication.
With the first company, Gammon said she consulted with a doctor on multiple Zoom calls. Rather than receiving an autoinjector pen, she got a syringe and vial to measure out a dose of the drug and self-administer it each week. She lost 18 lbs. in four months, calling her experience “phenomenal.”
Following a recommendation from a friend, Gammon switched to another telehealth company in October 2025. She was connected with a physician but only communicated through email. Again, she received a syringe and vial of the medication to inject her own dosage.
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Two weeks later, Gammon realized that the medication wasn’t curbing her appetite like before. And when she received her next vial, the instructions noted that she should take significantly more of the drug, injecting 46 units compared to her typical 8 units.
“That sort of scared me,” she told NBC. “I contacted the doctor, and I said this seems to be a little bit more than what I’m supposed to be taking. And then the response I got back, I think a day later, was just follow the doctor’s directions.”
Despite her skepticism, Gammon decided to inject herself with 30 units. Shortly after, she started vomiting — symptoms that would last for about two days. Her condition got so severe that her boyfriend rushed her to the emergency room.
“I wouldn’t stop throwing up, and it was like every 20 minutes,” she recalled. “I asked the doctor if I could be put in a coma until it was over.”
Gammon was hospitalized for several days and her kidney and liver were no longer functioning properly. Doctors later confirmed that she was suffering from a GLP-1 overdose. Between 2019 and 2025, the National Poison Data System from America’s Poison Centers recorded a nearly 1,500% increase in calls related to an overdose or side effects of GLP-1s.
Gammon said that it took a month before she was able to keep solid food down without throwing up. “I was hurting, I mean, it hurt. I couldn’t talk like nearly a week after, my ribs felt like they were being beaten up” she told the outlet.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Gammon admitted that both she and the telehealth physician are to blame. She has since stopped using GLP-1s, now trying to lose weight with diet and exercise.
“I think the doctor. I think it was a mistake. They’re human, they make mistakes. But myself, too, as well. I should have educated myself more,” she said. “I’m not dumb. I mean, I have a college degree. I should have known.”
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Gammon told WFMY that she’s still recovering, and has since been left with a nearly $10,000 hospital bill.
“If I’d taken the full dose, they don’t know where I would’ve been… I would not put that on my worst enemy,” she said, noting that she has not received an explanation or apology from the telehealth company.
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