An Australian woman who took Ozempic to shed a few pounds before her daughter’s wedding has died from gastrointestinal illness — now her husband is warning that the medication is “not worth it at all.”
Trish Webster, 56, was prescribed Ozempic to help her squeeze into her dream dress for her daughter’s nuptials.
Ozempic is a medication approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for people with Type 2 diabetes — it’s become widely used as a weight-loss drug around the world.
The drug works by mimicking a natural hormone, GLP-1, which slows down the passage of food through the stomach and intestines, making people feel full longer.
Problems arise if the drug slows down the stomach too much or blocks the intestines.
Intestinal blockage is called “ileus” — the FDA received 18 reports of it in people taking Ozempic as of late September.
For her part, Webster took Ozempic along with the prescription injection Saxenda, losing about 35 pounds in five months, according to local media reports.
While the medications helped Webster slim down quickly, they reportedly made her ill.
On Jan. 16, just a few months before her daughter’s wedding, Webster’s husband allegedly found her unconscious with a brown liquid seeping out of her mouth.
“She had a little bit of brown stuff coming out of her mouth, and I realized she wasn’t breathing and started doing CPR,” Roy Webster recounted to “60 Minutes Australia” last week.
“It was just pouring out, and I turned her onto the side because she couldn’t breathe.”
Webster died that night, with her cause of death listed as acute gastrointestinal illness.
“If I knew that could happen, she wouldn’t have been taking it,” the grieving husband insisted. “I never thought you could die from it.”
While Webster’s death has not been officially linked to her Ozempic and Saxenda usage, her husband is blaming the drugs.
“She shouldn’t be gone, you know,” Roy said. “It’s just not worth it, it’s not worth it at all.”
In a statement to “60 Minutes Australia,” the manufacturer of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk, said ileus was only reported after its “post-marketing setting,” suggesting the drugmaker only became aware of the problem after the drug was released.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company, which manufactures Mounjaro, are being sued in the US over claims that their popular weight-loss drugs can cause severe gastrointestinal problems, such as gastroparesis or “stomach paralysis,” which can lead to death.
Law firm Morgan & Morgan told The Post in August that it has received 500 similar inquiries from clients across 45 states, along with claims of injuries allegedly caused by other weight-loss drugs, including Wegovy, Rybelsus, and Saxenda.
A rep for Novo Nordisk told The Post at the time, “Semaglutide has been extensively examined in robust clinical development programs, large real-world evidence studies and has cumulatively over 9.5 million patient-years of exposure.”
The company noted that “gastrointestinal (GI) events are well-known side effects of the GLP-1 class.”
“Patient safety is Lilly’s top priority, and we actively engage in monitoring, evaluating, and reporting safety information for all our medicines,” Lilly told The Post in a statement.
The FDA in September updated the Ozempic label to acknowledge complaints of blocked intestines in some people who have taken the medication.
The update came after the federal agency received thousands of reports of gastrointestinal troubles from Ozempic users.
Gastroparesis is just one of many side effects that have been reported, including “Ozempic finger,” “Ozempic burp,” “Ozempic butt,” “Ozempic face” and weird dreams about celebrities.
Some experts have warned that Ozempic and similar medications have not been available long enough to study the long-term effects — including suicide concerns — and are likely being misused by some as a quick way to shed a few pounds.
