Mounjaro Side Effects Led to Emergency Surgery, Lawsuit Alleges

Bowel obstruction injuries required ileostomy placement and life-long need of medical care and monitoring.

A Delaware woman says she was hospitalized for nearly two weeks after Mounjaro side effects caused her to suffer a bowel obstruction, which led to intense abdominal pain and cyclic vomiting.

In a complaint (PDF) filed on September 5, Paula Wachter indicates she was prescribed the Eli Lilly diabetes drug for less than a year before requiring emergency surgery, which led to the need for physical rehabilitation and permanent injuries.

Mounjaro (tirzepatide) was introduced in 2022 as part of a new generation of type 2 diabetes treatments known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, which also include Ozempic, Trulicity, Rybelsus, Wegovy and Zepbound, the latter of which is a weight loss version of Mounjaro.

The medications have been riding a wave of popularity over the last year or so, due to their weight loss side effects. However, as the popularity of GLP-1 drugs has increased, so have reports of serious side effects, such as stomach paralysis, intestinal obstructions and vision loss. 

This has led to a growing number of Mounjaro lawsuits, Ozempic lawsuits and Wegovy lawsuits being filed by individuals like Wachter nationwide over the past few years, each raising nearly identical allegations that the manufacturers failed to provide adequate warnings about the risks of Mounjaro side effects and side effects of other GLP-1 drugs.

According to Wachter’s lawsuit, she was prescribed Mounjaro in 2023 for the treatment of her diabetes and to help her lose weight. However, she started suffering cyclical vomiting, abdominal pain and constipation in September of that year.

By September 10, her symptoms became so severe she was taken to a nearby Emergency Department by ambulance. Wachter was admitted to the intensive care unit for emergency surgery, where she was diagnosed with bowel obstruction and underwent a diagnostic laparoscopy and exploratory laparotomy with a subtotal colectomy and ileostomy placement, which diverts stool into an external pouch.

Wachter remained hospitalized for 12 days and was released to a rehabilitation center. She will require medical treatment and medical monitoring for the rest of her life, the complaint notes.

The lawsuit argues that Eli Lilly knew about the potential risks of bowel obstruction from its own clinical studies, case reports and the medical literature, yet failed to add that warning, as well as warnings of gastroparesis, to Mounjaro’s label.

“Defendant knew or should have known of the causal association between the use of GLP-1RAs and the risk of developing bowel obstruction and its sequelae like cyclical vomiting and delayed emptying lasting a year that go beyond the warnings contemplated by the drug’s label.”

– Paula Wachter v. Eli Lilly and Company

The lawsuit presents claims of fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, breach of warranty, and inadequate warning, seeking both punitive and compensatory damages.

Mounjaro Side Effects Lawsuits

Wachter’s lawsuit will be consolidated in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under U.S. District Judge Karen Marston, who is overseeing coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings for more than 2,600 claims that are part of a GLP-1 multidistrict litigation (MDL).

The judge has focused the early stages of the litigation on certain issues she deemed necessary to resolve before moving forward, including discovery and pretrial motions regarding general causation evidence over the link between Ozempic and gastric obstructions, gastroparesis and other injuries, as well as questions about whether the claims are preempted by federal law.

After those issues are resolved, Judge Marston is expected to direct the parties to select several representative Mounjaro or Ozempic lawsuits for early bellwether test trials, which will help the parties gauge how juries are likely to respond to evidence and testimony that would be presented throughout the litigation.

While the outcomes of the bellwether trials are not binding on other claims, they could help the parties reach a Mounjaro lawsuit settlement agreement that would avoid the need for each individual case to be sent back to their originating districts for costly individual trials in the future.