Ozempic rival’s potentially deadly new side effect warning as schoolteacher, 24, suffers organ damage from weight loss

Doctors are warning of a little-known fatal side effect associated with weight loss shots after treating a patient with liver failure.

The 24-year-old teacher had taken a large dose of Mounjaro for weight loss, which works in a similar way to Ozempic.

Seven months after starting the drug, she began suffering from severe vomiting, nausea and stomach pains — prompting her to rush to the emergency room.

Tests showed the unnamed patient had “horrendous” liver damage which could have killed her within days if not reversed.

The patient, who was obese and had a BMI of 34, had “alarming” levels of liver enzymes, proteins that help break down bile and toxins.

This was a sign that her organ was failing and she was admitted to intensive care where she received a blood transfusion to flush out the toxins in her blood.

She was referred to a transplant team because, if left untreated, she could have gone into full-blown liver failure and a transplant would have been her only chance of survival.

The Kuwaiti doctors who treated her wrote in the European Journal of Case Reports that Mounjaro was the “probable susceptible cause.”

Last year, a 37-year-old patient in Seattle was treated for similar liver damage after taking the same drug. The doctors called her condition ‘drug-induced liver damage.’

Experts do not know exactly what causes the rare side effect, although they believe that high doses of the drugs reduce the amount of fat in the liver.

If this happens too quickly, it could kill healthy cells, leading to injury.

Paradoxically, some studies have even suggested that tirzepatid, the active ingredient in Mounjaro, may actually treat liver failure.

The patient in the case report, who had given birth to her first child the previous year, had been taking a 12 milligram dose of Mounjaro after working up from a low dose.

Doses start at 2.5 milligrams and go up to a maximum of 15 milligrams.

When the patient first visited the emergency department in early July, her liver function tests were normal and she responded well to intravenous fluids and medications.

She was discharged but returned to the hospital two days later with the same symptoms, plus low blood sugar.

Scans when the woman was admitted revealed that her pancreas and other organs were normal, but her liver appeared slightly enlarged.

She tested negative for hepatitis, herpes and other viruses previously associated with hepatitis.

Doctors diagnosed her with acute liver injury, or rapid deterioration of liver function due to damage or stress to the organ.

She was admitted to the intensive care unit and hospitalized for 10 days before her liver function improved and she was stable enough to go home.

The patient, who was being treated in Kuwait, was advised not to take Mounjaro. When she was released, her BMI dropped from 34 to 25.

Tirzepatid was not shown to cause liver damage in clinical trials and is not mentioned in the warning label.

But doctors say the rapid weight loss it causes could “overload” the liver and cause inflammation – leading to the injury.

During weight loss, fat is sent from other parts of the body to the liver, where it is broken down into substances that cells can use.

But if too much is sent at once or a lot is sent continuously over a long period of time, the organ can become “overloaded” – causing complications.

Acute liver damage has previously been documented after bariatric surgery – such as gastric bypass surgery, which reduces the size of the stomach – which doctors have also linked to rapid weight loss.

The doctors at Adan Hospital in Kuwait wrote in the paper: “The [time] the association of tirzepatide with acute liver injury makes it a likely susceptible cause.’

They added: “This case highlights the need for further research and frequent monitoring of liver enzymes when tirzepatid is used for weight loss.”