Woman loses life to banned slimming pills

NST: ALOR STAR: A 33-year-old housewife died from kidney complications yesterday and her husband says it was because she took a slimming capsule which has since been banned.
Normala Shahidan died at the Alor Star Hospital’s intensive care unit at 1.30pm yesterday from severe infection to her blood system.
Doctors recorded her death as due to "septicaemia secondary multiple abscess".
Normala’s husband Roslan Khamis, 39, claimed that it was because she had taken the Kintop slimming capsule, which was banned by the Health Ministry in August last year.
He said the mother of two boys and a girl had been suffering from an infected right kidney after starting on the slimming pill regime nine months ago.
Her condition worsened in November and she had been in and out of hospital until her death.
"We didn’t know about the banning of Kintop. I did not doubt its effectiveness because the packaging stated that it had been approved by the Health Ministry.
"I allowed her to take the pills. She persuaded me, saying that she wanted to lose weight," said Roslan.
Normala weighed 72kg before she took the pills nine months ago. Within six months she had lost 17kg.
"She lost weight but she became more and more sick."
Roslan said doctors wanted to remove Normala’s right kidney when she last sought treatment at the Alor Star Hospital on Tuesday.
Normala was buried near her family home at Kampung Gunung Keriang here.
Roslan said that he planned to take legal action against the makers of the pills.
The Health Ministry banned the Kintop slimming capsule after it was found to contain sibutramine, which is classified as a poison.