It’s just days before Christmas when medical workers lead 7-year-old Jessa Milender through the hospital halls. The baby is normally limp, face down on a medical stretcher. She is hospitalized after an overdose of GLP-1 drugs prescribed by her mother.
“He was unable to walk due to exhaustion and severe pain,” said Melissa Milender. “She wouldn’t even let them touch her stomach. She was screaming in pain in her sleep. It was horrible.”
Poison centers across the country are seeing an increase in calls about people taking too many GLP-1 drugs. Research suggests that the increase in patients being prescribed Ozempic, Mounjaro and other similar drugs is causing overdose reports to rise.
The Indiana poison center says 13 Investigates calls doubled from 2024 to 2025, with 320 calls in 2025. The local poison center says the majority of calls are about adult women, although a handful of those calls involve children and teenagers.
Doctors say 13 Investigations most people can manage symptoms at home. However, some end up in the hospital, like Jessa.
GLP-1s are glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists. Medicines artificially create a hormone that the human body produces naturally. This is good for diabetics because it allows their body to produce more insulin so it can better manage blood sugar.
Medicines also reduce hunger and make some people feel fuller for longer, which can help with weight loss.
There are several versions of GLP-1 currently in use, including semaglutide and tirzepatide, which are the active drugs in popular brands including Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro.
Jessa’s mother tells 13 Investigates Jessa was hospitalized twice in one week in December 2024.
The family shared images of Jessa looking ashen, exhausted, grieving and connected to an IV.
“I don’t think we were prepared for how bad it was going to get,” Melissa said.
Medical records show Jessa got hold of her mother’s Mounjaro around December 16, 2024. Melissa says as soon as she found out the girl had injected herself with the drug, she called Poison Control. Melissa followed the instructions to keep the child at home and hydrated. She was told to expect Jessa to have symptoms including vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.
A few hours after Jessa injected her medicine, she started vomiting.
“We weren’t expecting the severity,” Melissa said. “She would drink water and then throw it right back up…I was like, ‘How is she going to stay hydrated when she literally can’t keep anything down?'”
Jessa’s mother said she would throw up constantly.
“Seeing your child sick, even a normal sick child, you wish you could take them,” Melissa said. “But to see them so sick for so long and feel like no one really knows how to help. It’s a hopeless, helpless part I don’t wish on anyone.”
Records show Jessa was admitted overnight on Dec. 18 at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, not far from the family’s home in San Bernardino, California. This was a few days after the girl took the medicine. He received medication and an IV, then went home the next day.
“They were on the verge of releasing us or not,” Melissa said. “I should never have let them free her.”
Jessa had a night off. Then the vomiting came back the next day. Melissa remembers that her daughter was thirsty but couldn’t keep the water down. Jessa was so weak that her mother had to carry her to the bathroom.
Medical records state that Jessai’s parents reported that she vomited 10 to 15 times a day. So, back at the hospital, the doctors re-admitted her and the medical records show there were “concerns for renal failure”. Jessa had stopped urinating and doctors were concerned about the health of her kidneys.
Melissa said at one point, Jessa threw up “brown chunks,” which doctors said could have been the girl’s stomach lining. The family reports that it was around this time that they began to fear for Jessa’s life.
“Saturday night, we as a family gathered around her because she was just laying there, lifeless,” Melissa said.
Two more days in the hospital, then doctors said Jessa was well enough to go home on December 23, two days before Christmas. She made a full recovery.
Doctors say overdose symptoms usually last about a week because that’s how long the drug has to stay in the body. Now that millions of people have received GLP-1, calls to poison control centers are increasing.
The National Poison Data System, America’s Poison Centers reports that GLP-1 overdose and side effect calls have increased nearly 1,500% since 2019.
The Indiana Poison Center reports that calls doubled last year. In 2022, the center reports receiving 64 calls, and in 2025, it received 320 calls. The center tells 13 Investigates that 76 percent involved women, and most were due to accidental dosing errors. The majority, 73%, did not determine that the patient had to go to a medical facility for care.
Dr. Mary Wermuth is a toxicologist at IU Health. She said there are likely more unreported cases, especially since people can call their doctors or simply deal with symptoms themselves at home.
While overdose cases are on the rise, calls involving children like Jessa are rare.
“The dosing errors we usually see are too frequent or inaccurate or too high of a dose,” she said.
Wermuth said some people take it too often, forgetting it’s a weekly drug.
She said other patients think a little extra might help them lose weight faster.
“More of a good thing is not always a good thing,” said Dr. Ethan Blocher-Smith of IU Health Fishers.
However, Wermuth and Blocher-Smith agree that most people who take too much medicine do so by accident. Mistakes are more common with combination medications that may come with multiple doses in a single vial, requiring patients to measure the right amount. Many brand name drugs are now prefilled.
Symptoms of overdose include nausea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal problems. Severe reactions can lead to dehydration and pancreatitis, which can land you in the hospital.
“Just because it’s thought to be used for weight loss, even though there are other indications — diabetes and so on, that doesn’t make it any less toxic if you take it inappropriately,” Wermuth said.
“This drug slowly releases time,” Blocher-Smith said. “That means the moment you inject it, you’re committed to getting results for those weeks, positive or negative. You get what you get.”
To avoid overdose, medical experts suggest people read the instructions carefully and ask the pharmacist to demonstrate how to take it correctly.
They also encourage buying medicine only from a reputable source. Doctors warn that counterfeit drugs can be dangerous because they are not regulated.
As for children, they suggest patients put their medicine in a box.
Melissa now has one for the composite version of her tirzepatida.
Doctors say the boxes are the key to keeping these drugs away from curious children and teenagers.
“We got him the day he overdosed,” Melissa said. “It was $20 on Amazon and it’s been in my fridge ever since.”
In 2024, she thought it was enough to put the medicine higher up in the refrigerator. She’s still surprised that Jessa decided to inject herself with the drug.
“I thought it was stomach medicine,” Jessa said, “because my mom takes it and I thought it helped her stomach pain.”
“She had seen her father give me my first two shots,” Melissa said. “It makes you sick to your stomach…but I never explained what I was doing…trying to get healthier.”
Jessa took about 60% of her mother’s medication. The family is glad that the girl did not take a full dose.
“I try not to think about the ‘what ifs,'” Melissa said. “God has protected us from the worst, and I firmly believe that.”
Her parents now hope her story can protect other children.