Woman will never eat solid food again after weight-loss drug caused horrific bowel injury that nearly killed her

• Meredith Hotchkiss told DailyMail.com that using Mounjaro had ‘devastated my life’
• She joined a massive lawsuit against drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordish.
• Recent filing presents litany of health problems linked to weight-loss drugs

The litany of serious medical problems allegedly caused by Ozempic and similar weight-loss drugs are laid bare in a landmark court case that claims thousands of patients suffered life-threatening side effects.

Some users have remained bedridden after consuming these medications, while others are in constant pain and may never consume solid foods again.

A patient who used Eli Lilly’s blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drug Mounjaro told DailyMail.com that she could no longer eat solid foods and would likely receive nutrition and fluids through a tube directly into his small intestine for the rest of his life.

“It devastated my life,” Meredith Hotchkiss, 56, said.

Conditions linked to Ozempic, Mounjaro and similar drugs include gastroparesis, intestinal obstruction and intestinal obstruction. The lawyers say the drugs also caused “malnutrition, dehydration, neurological disorders and even death.”

Hotchkiss is one of more than 100 patients who have joined the lawsuit against the drugmakers. Thousands of other patients, who also suffered extreme side effects, are expected to join the lawsuit as it progresses, lawyers say.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the Danish company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy, are accused of failing to warn patients or doctors about certain side effects caused by the drugs.

Both companies said they would “vigorously defend against these allegations” and denied the allegations in the lawsuits.

DailyMail.com revealed in January that patients across America had filed lawsuits against Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, including one woman who would suffer from diarrhea forever after using Ozempic.

The cases have now been consolidated into multidistrict litigation, which is akin to a class action.

A new filing in the case lists the “most common types of injuries” and gives several examples of patients being hospitalized or left permanently ill.

Hotchkiss, a nurse from Meridian, Idaho, was diagnosed with gastroparesis — a condition also known as stomach paralysis — after using Mounjaro and Trulicity, another weight-loss drug from Eli Lilly, according to the filing.

She has not eaten an adequate meal since last February and now relies on intravenous nutrition and a feeding tube in her small intestine because she can no longer consume solid foods.

“I’m angry,” she told DailyMail.com. “When we look at the side effects, we are not talking about gastroparesis.

“My doctor didn’t tell me about gastroparesis. And you see (the companies) are just pushing these drugs, even Weight Watchers as a program, they’re pushing these drugs.

“It scares me that you don’t know the long-term effects and you don’t know how people are going to react to it.”

Hotchkiss was prescribed Mounjaro from approximately July 2022 to June 2023. He was also briefly prescribed Trulicity from December 2022 to March 2023.

She suffers from diabetes, but her condition is “well controlled” and the medications were administered off-label to lose weight.

“My diabetes is so well controlled. But I thought if I could lose weight and have Mounjaro, then I could try because everyone, you see, everyone does it,” she said.

“The doctor told me I could lose weight and it worked really well. He said I would be very sick for four weeks and after four weeks I would feel much better.

After four weeks of using Mounjaro, Hotchkiss was “bloated, not very hungry.” She briefly discontinued use of the drug due to insurance concerns, but resumed in early 2023 and combined it with a “whole-food, plant-based diet.”

Her condition deteriorated rapidly and she developed gastroparesis.

“When I started again, I could just eat cottage cheese, macaroni and cheese, or yogurt. Even though I ate whole plant foods, I couldn’t tolerate anything,” she said.

“In April I went to see (a gastroenterologist) and he told me I had terrible gastritis and duodenitis (inflammation of the small intestine) and everything was inflamed. He did a gastric emptying study and it showed that I had the most severe form of gastroparesis.

Hotchkiss was fitted with a central line, which is a tube in a vein to deliver nutrition directly into the bloodstream, as well as tubes to her stomach and small intestine.

She was also hospitalized three times due to the ordeal, including for life-threatening sepsis.

Hotchkiss said she lost some weight after taking these medications, but her weight has now stabilized because her body has gone into “starvation mode” and is “holding on to every calorie,” she said. .

The side effects changed her life and stopped her from doing the things she loves. Doctors also told her that she could no longer travel abroad due to her health.

“I don’t know how to swim, I can’t go in the water. I love swimming, I have a boat, I can’t go in the water at all. I loved swimming in the ocean,” she said.

“It affects me socially, because you go out with your friends and what do you do? You go out to dinner, or you go to barbecues…every vacation, it’s all about the food.

“The other thing I worry about is whether I’ll be alive long enough to pay off the house with my husband, because I worry about him.”

Lawyers say Hotchkiss’ ordeal is far from unique.

Recent complaints filed with the court refer to another patient, Delisa Jones, who “took Ozempic for a few months before suffering severe vomiting and gastrointestinal burning, leading to gastroparesis.”

Jones “requires medication to relieve vomiting and suffers from severe and persistent stomach pain that leaves her essentially bedridden.”

The filing also references Billie Farley, who, according to DailyMail.com, will “never have solid stools again” due to complications allegedly caused by Ozempic.

Other patients also spoke to DailyMail.com about the horrific consequences.

Zakareeya Gregory, 46, of Walker Mill, Maryland, said her gallbladder was removed after suffering side effects believed to be caused by Ozempic, which she used for seven months until February 2020.

Dina Fioretti said Ozempic made her vomit so much that she suffered a torn esophagus and spent a week in the hospital.

The companies are accused of failing to properly label product side effects and attempting to “downplay the severity of gastroparesis symptoms and forget that they can be a sign of a life-threatening digestive deficiency.”

Eli Lilly said: “Patient safety is Lilly’s top priority, and we are actively engaged in monitoring, evaluating and reporting safety information for all of our medicines.

“Our FDA-approved labels clearly warn that tirzepatide and dulaglutide may be associated with gastrointestinal adverse reactions, sometimes serious.

“The labels further state that tirzepatide and dulaglutide have not been studied in patients with serious gastrointestinal disease, including severe gastroparesis, and therefore are not recommended in these patients.

“These risks have been communicated and widely known to health care providers. We vigorously defend ourselves against these assertions.

Novo Nordisk stated: “Novo Nordisk believes that the allegations contained in these lawsuits are without merit and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these allegations.

“Patient safety is our top priority at Novo Nordisk, and we work closely with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to continually monitor the safety profile of our medicines.

“GLP-1 drugs have been used for over 18 years to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D) and for 8 years to treat obesity. This includes Novo Nordisk GLP-1 products such as semaglutide and liraglutide which have been on the market for over 13 years.

“Semaglutide has been extensively investigated in robust clinical development programs, large real-world evidence studies, and has a total of over 9.5 million patient years of clinical experience.

“The known risks and benefits of semaglutide and liraglutide medications are described in their FDA-approved product labeling.”

“Novo Nordisk guarantees the safety and effectiveness of all our GLP-1 medications when used as directed and when taken under the care of a licensed healthcare professional.