Student who died from slimming pill overdose sent heartbreaking apology text

Student who died from slimming pill overdose sent heartbreaking apology text

"I screwed up big time. Binged/purged all night and took four pills at 4am.

"I took another four when I woke and I started vomiting soon after. I think I am going to die.

"No one is known to survive if they vomit after taking DNP. I am so scared. I am so sorry for being so stupid."

This was the heart-wrenching message that 21-year-old student Eloise Parry had sent to her lecturer at Glyndŵr University in Wrexham, Wales, Great Britain, before she died on April 12, according to The Guardian.

BBC News reported that an inquest into Ms Parry's death concluded that she died on from an overdose of slimming pills.

The death was ruled as accidental, reported Mail Online, with the coroner stating there was no evidence to suggest that Ms Parry took the pills to kill herself.

The unlicensed diet pills contained a toxic substance called 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) which is found in explosives and pesticides.

According to The Telegraph, it is illegal to sell DNP as a weight loss product in the UK, where it is also banned for human consumption.

The Straits Times reported that DNP is banned in Singapore.​

That fateful night, Ms Parry, who was suffering from bulimia, had driven herself to the hospital after she realised that she was very ill.

At the hospital, she was told that there was no antidote and she was going to die.

MUM SPEAKS OUT

Her mother Fiona has now come out to speak out against companies who sell these unlicensed slimming pills online, urging harsher penalties for those who distribute and supply these substances.

Speaking outside the court in Shrewsbury, she said that if the pills had been banned, her daughter "would have taken more seriously the warnings about how dangerous it was".

She urged people to not take DNP.

She told BBC News: "Eloise was an independent soul who was carving her way through life with difficulty, exploring the world and trying to make something of herself in the process.

"Living life to the full always involves taking risks. We weigh up the pros and cons and decide whether the risk is worth taking. Eloise decided that even though she had been told DNP was dangerous, being slimmer was worth the risk.

"She was convinced the dangers were being exaggerated and some days she even thought she was being lied to about it. She was wrong."

She added:

"If anything, it was even more dangerous than she had been told. She weighed the pros and cons and made a bad choice. It cost her her life. I would implore anyone even considering taking DNP or something similar not to do so."

Police and health officials said yesterday (July 23) that they were working with their other officials in Europe and North America to try to trace the person or company that sold Ms Parry the slimming pills.

Source: The Guardian, BBC News, Mail Online, The Telegraph, The Straits Times


This article was first published on July 24, 2015.
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