A Pennsylvania woman is suing the maker of Ozempic after she had a near-death experience and blamed the drug.
62-year-old diabetic Juanita Gantt responded well to medication for months until she suddenly fell asleep at home and was found unconscious by her husband.
Parts of her intestines had died from a condition called ischemic colitis, forcing doctors to remove her colon. She later went into cardiac arrest and her heart stopped.
Now that she no longer has a colon, she will have to use a drainage bag to go to the toilet for the rest of her life.
Doctors suspect the diet drug caused blood vessels in her abdomen to constrict, reducing blood flow to her colon. That lack of oxygen-rich blood flow hampers the intestines’ ability to function properly, slowing the movement of food through the digestive tract and causing tissue to wither and die.
She is suing the pharmaceutical company because she says it failed to warn people about this risk. The risk has been identified in a small number of patients who received Ozempic, Wegovy and similar weight loss vaccines.
Juanita Gantt was found unconscious by her husband Robert one day in October 2023 and rushed to the hospital, where she was discovered to have a severe case of colitis, which required the removal of her colon.
Mrs. Gant has always struggled with her weight, but with traditional diet and exercise plans she was able to lose a maximum of 45 pounds.
Given her family history of diabetes, her doctor considered her a good candidate for Wegovy and later Olympic, which was the first to be approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
She lost weight for several months and felt great.
She told CBS: ‘I felt great. I enjoyed the days when I didn’t have to worry about my appetite. I didn’t have any cravings. I just felt like I was doing something positive for myself.’
But her health suddenly and without warning deteriorated.
After she fainted and was rushed to hospital in October 2023, doctors discovered that parts of her intestines had shriveled and died, a side effect of ischemic colitis.
Ischemic colitis occurs when the blood supply to the large intestine is decreased, causing the tissue to become deprived of oxygen and die.
Wegovy and Ozempic contain the same ingredient, semaglutide, which slows down the rate at which food leaves the stomach.
While this can help people feel fuller for longer and therefore be less likely to consume extra calories, doctors are beginning to realize that this slower bowel movement can also contribute to a sluggish gastrointestinal tract.
Mrs. Gantt, pictured here with her husband Robert, is suing pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk over what she claims is a failure by the company to adequately test for and warn of potentially serious gastrointestinal problems such as intestinal blockages and colitis.
Reports of serious gastrointestinal events did not begin until after the drugs were approved about three years ago.
So far, about 20 cases of intestinal obstruction, also called ileus, have been reported by patients to the FDA’s voluntary adverse event reporting service.
However, scientists are still not sure what exactly the drug is that changes bowel movements so much that food can no longer pass through the intestines.
Dr. Dan Azagury, chief of bariatric surgery at Stanford University, said: ‘[Semaglutide] is a gut hormone. All of the very well-known and very common side effects are all gastrointestinal related. One of the mechanisms is to slow down how quickly your stomach empties. So, it’s in the realm of things that we know this drug does.’
Mrs. Gantt had to undergo emergency surgery to remove her colon. After the surgery, her heart stopped and she had to be resuscitated. In the meantime, the doctors thought she was going to die and called her daughter to tell her.
“It breaks my heart that my daughter got that phone call,” Mrs. Gantt said, holding back tears.
She added: ‘I had no warning that this was even a possibility.’
Ms. Gantt is suing Novo Nordisk, alleging the company failed to adequately warn the 15 million Americans who take the drugs about the risk of serious stomach and intestinal problems.
Her lawyer, Parvin Aminolroaya, said: ‘They invested a lot in marketing the drug, hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the market and recruit new patients for the drug, but they didn’t spend that money on warning patients about the risk of gastroparesis, ileus, small bowel obstruction and the fact that these injuries can be serious, even though they are rare.’
According to the lawsuit, Ozempic and Wegovy were “not adequately and/or inadequately tested for safety risks, including bowel obstruction, ischemic colitis, malnutrition and their sequelae.”
If that had been the case, the lawsuit continues, Ms. Gantt would not have taken either medication.
Novo Nordisk has maintained that allegations that patients were not warned about serious side effects, potentially putting them at risk, are false and will be refuted in court.
This is not the first time that Novo Nordisk has faced a legal battle against patients for failing to warn of serious health problems.
Earlier this year, DailyMail.com reviewed dozens of lawsuits filed by people who have suffered greatly, usually as a result of gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis.
This can be life-threatening condition and causes food to build up in the intestines. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and severe pain.
In all the lawsuits, Novo Nordisk is accused of failing to adequately warn about the risk of gastroparesis on the medicine’s packaging.
In a statement to CBS about the latest lawsuit and the many lawsuits that preceded it, Novo Nordisk spokespeople said, “The known risks and benefits of semaglutide and liraglutide medicines are described in their FDA-approved product labels… the allegations in the lawsuits are baseless.”
