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SINGAPORE \u2013 His parents had plans to open a gym for him to pursue his passion for bodybuilding.<\/p>\n
But in the pursuit of his goals, the 20-year-old polytechnic student had turned to an illicit drug that ultimately killed him.<\/p>\n
On Oct 16, State Coroner Adam Nakhoda found that the youth, who cannot be named due to a gag order, had taken 2,4-Dinitrophenol, or DNP.<\/p>\n
The substance has been banned by the Food and Drug Administration in the US for almost 90 years and is listed under the Poisons Act in Singapore.<\/p>\n
It is so dangerous that there are no legitimate medical uses for it in humans, and no effective antidotes or treatments for those poisoned by it.<\/p>\n
Yet, it is still falsely marketed by illicit sellers as a fast and safe weight-loss drug.<\/p>\n
The youth was hospitalised on Dec 22, 2024, after he went to the hospital emergency department in the early hours of the morning, saying he had difficultly breathing.<\/p>\n
Hours later, his heart stopped and he could not be resuscitated.<\/p>\n
In his findings, the coroner said the youth was a competitive bodybuilder who trained intensely for long hours, especially when he neared a competition date.<\/p>\n
His family knew he had been taking supplements, but did not question him as they trusted him.<\/p>\n
The coroner said that according to medical reports, the youth had previously seen several doctors and denied taking illicit drugs and steroids.<\/p>\n
This was despite numerous irregularities found in his blood and urine tests.<\/p>\n
He had also informed a clinic that he had a previous prescription for weight loss medication from MaNaDr Clinic, which had its licence revoked in December 2024<\/span><\/a> for multiple lapses.<\/p>\n In September 2024, his mother noticed his breathing had become heavy.<\/p>\n He told her he was taking fat burners and she asked him to stop, after which his breathing returned to normal.<\/p>\n On Dec 21 that year, his parents saw him when they returned home that evening. They said he appeared normal and ate some watermelon, followed by doughnuts.<\/p>\n But they noticed he looked tired, though they did not ask him about it.<\/p>\n In the early hours of Dec 22, 2024, while his family was asleep, the youth went to the emergency department of Mount Elizabeth Hospital as he had difficulty breathing.<\/p>\n He told the doctors he had taken fat burners, but was unable to say exactly how much he had consumed or what they contained.<\/p>\n He was found to have a fever and shortness of breath, and was alert but unable to keep his eyes open.<\/p>\n Because of this, there were plans for his urgent admission to intensive care.<\/p>\n But when a doctor called the youth\u2019s father at around 4.30am, he said their insurance did not cover a private hospital ward and asked for his son to be transferred to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).<\/p>\n The youth was taken by ambulance and handed over to TTSH at around 5.15am.<\/p>\n As doctors tried to treat him, he became increasingly agitated and physically aggressive, and had to be chemically sedated.<\/p>\n At around 8.40am, he suffered a cardiac arrest. After 40 minutes of resuscitation, he was pronounced dead at 9.20am.<\/p>\n After his death, the police seized 34 types of medications and substances from his home.<\/p>\n Many of these were for managing the side effects of taking performance enhancing steroids.<\/p>\n While DNP was not found among the seized medications, it was detected in urine and stomach samples taken from the youth after his death.<\/p>\n The death report found that DNP ultimately killed him. The other medications and substances were therapeutic and did not cause or contribute to his death.<\/p>\n The coroner said the police had seized the youth\u2019s phone but could not unlock it.<\/p>\n As a result, the source of the various substances, including the DNP, could not be established.<\/p>\n It could also not be ascertained whether the youth knew that he was consuming DNP.<\/p>\n Police investigations did not suspect foul play.<\/p>\n The coroner said it was a profound tragedy that someone so full of potential had died so young.<\/p>\n He added that the youth\u2019s death must serve as a reminder that using substances such as steroids and DNP to achieve one\u2019s goals in bodybuilding or other sports is dangerous.<\/p>\n The death was ruled as a substance-related accident.<\/p>\n After the findings were delivered, the youth\u2019s mother, who was present in court, said she took issue with TTSH\u2019s care.<\/p>\n She also alluded to the possibility that her son might have been coerced and made to consume DNP while under tremendous pressure to maintain a certain weight and physique.<\/p>\n She said there was a person from the bodybuilding community behaving suspiciously at the youth\u2019s wake.<\/p>\n The coroner noted that there was no evidence that the youth was given DNP against his will, though such a scenario would point to foul play.<\/p>\n He suggested that the mother give a statement to the police, and he would reopen the inquiry if necessary.<\/p>\n The mother agreed to do so.<\/p>\n A follow-up court session for the case has been scheduled for Oct 26.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 His parents had plans to open a gym for him to pursue his passion for bodybuilding. But in the pursuit of his goals,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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