Weight Loss Wonder Drug Turns Into Gut-Wrenching Nightmare
Woman's Dream of Shedding Pounds Ends in Surgery Hell
A West Virginia woman's weight loss journey turned into a medical nightmare after the buzzy drug Wegovy allegedly left her with severe gut problems and minus one gallbladder, according to a bombshell lawsuit filed last week.
Ashley Kimes joined the millions of Americans jumping on the Wegovy bandwagon in January 2022, hoping the celebrity-favorite drug would help her slim down. Instead, she ended up in the ER by December, doubled over in agony with what doctors discovered were gallstones wreaking havoc in her system.
But that was just the beginning of her horror story.
After surgeons yanked out her gallbladder, they found an even nastier surprise: her intestines had basically gone on strike. The condition, known as ileus, meant her gut couldn't move food through her system – turning her digestive tract into a backed-up nightmare that required a second surgery.
Now Kimes is taking pharma giant Novo Nordisk to court, claiming they kept quiet about these brutal side effects while raking in billions pushing their wonder drug. Her lawsuit, filed in Pennsylvania federal court, alleges the company was too busy counting their cash to properly warn patients and doctors about the risks.
The case joins a growing pile of lawsuits from users of Wegovy and its sister drug Ozempic who claim they got more than they bargained for with these trendy weight loss shots. Both drugs use semaglutide, which works by making people feel fuller longer – but apparently can leave some with long-term gut grief.
The feds have now lumped all these cases together in Philadelphia, where Judge Karen S. Marston is sorting through the mess. She's ordered lawyers to dig into whether these drugs cause the problems users are claiming, and whether Big Pharma can hide behind federal laws to dodge responsibility.
For Kimes and others like her, what started as a simple quest to shed some pounds turned into a medical odyssey complete with multiple surgeries, drainage tubes, and a permanently altered digestive system. The price of getting thin? For some, it might be higher than anyone bargained for.