People believe a woman who drank up to three bottles of wine every day is pregnant because her liver has been severely damaged.
Jo’s body has been so badly injured by binge drinking that she has to have fluid drained from her stomach to prevent it from becoming overly bloated.
Her liver cirrhosis has caused her to develop ascites, a condition in which fluid collects in her stomach and causes veins to bulge, creating the erroneous impression that she is pregnant.
Jo’s liver can’t handle nutrients in fluids because of the damage she’s done, which creates the buildup, according to the BBC’s Old Before My Time.
And she needs to go to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough every three weeks to have several liters drained away – in the program, she has 23 liters filtered away, resulting in a staggering three stone weight loss.
Jo now claims to be completely sober, but her only hope of repairing the harm she has already done to her body is a liver transplant, which comes with no assurances.
The show showed Jo going through the procedure of draining the fluid. Draining 12 liters can take up to eight hours.
Jo now lives with her mother and is not allowed to use a bank card for fear of relapsing into addiction.
She is just one of many horrifying stories featured in the BBC3 documentary that aired last night.
It depicted the devastation that some people cause themselves by misusing alcohol in vivid detail.
In the United Kingdom, excessive drinking and alcohol misuse are common problems.