Dieting To Death

Student, 19, Dies After Taking Diet Pills And Losing 20kg

A 19-year old student died of apparent side effects from weight-loss pills she took in the hopes of reducing her weight for the uniform of a university she was newly admitted to.

Natthiyaphorn Udomkantrong, a straight A 12th grader from a Roi Et high school who had just secured a seat at Maha Sarakham University's faculty of pharmacy, lost 20 kilograms after taking the pills for two months.
Her mother had noticed her drastic weight loss from originally 65 kilograms, but her 10-year old sister, who learned of Natthiyaphorn taking the pills, was not aware of their potentially fatal side effects and did not tell their mother about the pills.
Initial autopsy reports cited heart failure as the cause of the young woman's death. Natthiyaphorn was due to register at the university on May 22, after passing the admission tests.
The younger sister said Natthiyaphorn took a white pill for a while before switching to a pink, oval one. Both types of pill are pending verification and analysis while police find out from what pharmacy Natthiyaphorn bought them.

Source: The Nation - May 13, 2011

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20-year-old Glenni "Glenn" Wilsey V (photo), of Vermilion in northeast Ohio, weight 280 pounds (127kg).

Despite that, he has great hope of joining the United States Army.

He succeeded in losing about 85 pounds (36kg) in less than four months, and...
died.

According to the Lorain County Coroner in Ohio, Dr. Paul Matus, the cause of his death on March 3 2011, was due to extreme diet-related causes.
Electrolyte imbalance led to acute cardiac dysrhythmia.
Extreme dieting and purging are other contributing factor.

Glenni "Glenn" Wilsey V's mother, Lora Bailey, blames diet coaching by Army recruiters.
She claimed recruiters gave her son diet advice and encouraged self-induced vomiting.

The mother claimed her son was self-inducing vomiting, as adviced.

Dr Ruby Arora, an internal medicine physician, knows how dangerous that can be - The main thing is the electrolyte imbalance because of the loss of potassium, which regulates the heart rhythm.

But Staff Sgt. Chris Minor, in the United States Air Force,  knows of recruits who have lost similar amounts of weight.
He had a friend of a legacy of Air Force family, and was a little bit overweight.
He was able to put down 65 pounds in four months.

The Army is investigating on recruiters who coached the dieting.