Amanda Goodsell suffered heart failure after taking Kratom for her persistent leg pain
Credit: gofundme; Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Amanda Goodsell suffered a severe reaction to kratom supplements purchased at a gas station to relieve leg pain
- Doctors initially said Amanda needed a heart transplant and she was placed on life support
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns against using kratom for medical treatment, as it is not approved for sale in the U.S.
An Arizona mother is recovering from a severe reaction to an herbal supplement.
Amanda Goodsell was found unresponsive in her bed after taking kratom gummy supplements, according to Arizona’s Family. She bought the supplements at a gas station after her husband suggested them for relieving her persistent leg pain.
“Everybody knew what kratom was. So, I was like, ‘Well, here, just take this.’ You could just buy it at the gas station. It’s not going to hurt you,” Amanda’s husband, Mike Goodsell, told the outlet.
Amanda, 27, took the supplements for a week before becoming unresponsive.
“She was red, her lips were blue and she was foaming,” Mike recalled. “So, I jumped out of bed. I grabbed her, and then, she was trying to wake her up … I thought she was gone.”
Kratom is a tropical tree from Southeast Asia and is often used for self-medication to treat pain, coughing, diarrhea, anxiety and depression and opioid withdrawal, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Amanda “suffered a severe reaction” to the supplement “and her heart stopped twice,” family member Sherri Nelson revealed on GoFundMe. She was placed on life support and in “urgent need of a heart transplant.”
“They had to have her on a ventilator to help her breathe, and then, they had to put her on a bunch of medications because her heart percentage was at 15%,” said Mike, who shares 3-year-old twins with his wife, per AZ Family.
Credit: gofundme
Despite the bleak outlook, Amanda gradually made a “miracle turnaround” and no longer needs a heart transplant. She is continuing to recover at home.
“Her heart percentage came up to a stable point,” said Mike, per AZ Family. “It was a sense of relief that they told me that she didn’t need one.”
Amanda will need a defibrillator and heart medication for the rest of her life, according to AZ Family.
Over $8,000 has been raised on a GoFundMe page in support of her medical expenses.
According to the FDA, there are no prescription or over-the-counter drug products containing kratom that are legally sold in the U.S. The government agency warns the public against using kratom for medical treatment.
“If a new drug application (NDA) is submitted for kratom to treat a specific medical condition, FDA will review the scientific data to determine if a drug product containing kratom (or its components) is safe and effective to treat that specific medical condition,” said the FDA.
“FDA will continue to warn the public against the use of kratom for medical treatment. The agency will also continue to monitor emerging data trends to better understand the substance and its components,” the agency added.
PEOPLE has reached out to the FDA for comment.
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