Within 24 hours of injecting the first dose of a weight loss medication she received following a visit with a telehealth doctor, Karleigh McClain was admitted to the hospital, she said. The 31-year-old compliance consultant from Hendersonville, Tennessee, said she couldn’t stop vomiting.
“Sunday morning, it all hits,” McClain recalled, as she described what happened that weekend in January. “I can’t keep anything down.” McClain said she thought the dosage the telehealth company had prescribed seemed too high.
She tried to contact her doctor, but when she didn’t get an immediate response, she said she called the company and a “care team” representative confirmed the instructions — which said to inject 2.21 milligrams of the semaglutide medication once a week — were correct. It turned out, however, that was nearly nine times the amount patients are typically told to take for their first dose.
Nearly a month after she was diagnosed with an overdose, McClain said she was “still dealing with the residual side effects,” including an elevated heart rate and vision problems she felt were tied to the medication.
KFF Health News published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 01 Jun 2026.
The item focuses on Telehealth Booms as Demand for GLP-1s Surges and Questions Mount About Safety, Oversight.
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