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Anna Kolyada: Medical student and model, 22, dies after taking unprescribed immunity boosting medication made of human placenta

After taking the medication, Anna Kolyada started feeling sick, experienced violent chills and headaches, and her body temperature rose to 41 degrees

MOSCOW, RUSSIA: A medical student who also worked as a model died after ingesting an immune-stimulating drug made from human placenta, according to Russian law enforcement. Investigation is being conducted into the tragic death of 22-year-old Anna Kolyada, a fifth-year medical student who used a drip to self-administer the Japanese medication.

Kolyada was on her way to the airport to catch a flight to Dubai, when she injected herself with the medication. Just 20 minutes after the injection, she started feeling sick, experienced violent chills and headaches, and her body temperature rose to 41 degrees. She was immediately rushed to the hospital where doctors found her lungs filled with fluid. She also experienced septic shock, heart failure, and blood poisoning which eventually led to her death ten days later.

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Anna Kolyada purchased the medication without prescription

Kolyada had shared the medication with a friend, Dmitry Zhulin, 33, who was also hospitalized but is currently on the mend. He has already been transferred from the intensive care unit to another specialized ward and doctors assessed his current condition as stable.

The Russian Investigative Committee reported that a criminal investigation into Kolyada's death has been initiated. According to reports, she allegedly purchased the Japanese Laennec therapy without a prescription from an online pharmacy and set up a drip for herself and Zhulin without consulting a licensed physician, as per Daily Mail.

The medicine may have been in a saline drip for a number of days when "an infection formed in it due to coagulated protein," according to a theory. The pair wanted to boost their immune systems before their trip to Dubai. They had previously used the medication without any issues.

The medication was made from human placenta

Investigators are looking at the gel capsules containing the immune-stimulating substance derived from human placenta. One supplier refers to Laennec as a "unique immune stimulating agent" made from hydrolyzed placenta. "For Laennec production, the placenta taken from Japanese women after a safe delivery without complications is used," he said. 

Anna Kolyada was a fifth-year medical student at Sechenov Medical University in Moscow. She was a "nutritionist, doctor of preventive medicine, health coach, and specialist in systemic rehabilitation." Meanwhile, Zhulin is a founder of a major Russian online shop called Sbermarket.