{"id":43481,"date":"2025-08-04T15:15:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T15:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/43481\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T15:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T15:15:15","slug":"mother-58-suffered-burst-appendix-after-taking-weight-loss-jab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/43481\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother, 58, suffered ‘burst appendix’ after taking weight loss jab"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman has told how she suffered a burst appendix after taking blockbuster weight loss<\/a> jab Ozempic, as she tried to shed a few pounds before her son’s wedding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ali Eastburn, who was a size 16, was prescribed the drug by her doctor in April to feel more confident in wedding photos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 58-year-old, from Nashville in Tennessee<\/a>, US, claimed she had\u00a0tried shifting the weight from her ‘post-menopausal’ body naturally, but nothing had proved effective.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After her ‘trusted’ doctor suggested she was eligible for the weight loss injection, she began on a low dose of the drug and soon noticed her weight drop.<\/p>\n

But after this plateaued in July, weeks before the wedding, the mum-of-three suddenly increased her dosage\u2014which experts have long warned against.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within days she experienced\u00a0heartburn, nausea and ‘violent’ diarrhoea, and was rushed to the emergency room twice.<\/p>\n

Determined to make her son’s wedding despite her health woes, the estate agent travelled to\u00a0Orange County in California on July 15.<\/p>\n

Yet, her appendix ruptured during the flight and she was rushed for emergency surgery as soon as she landed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ali <\/p>\n

Ali Eastburn, who was a size 16, was prescribed the drug by her doctor in April to feel more confident in wedding photos<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The 58-year-old, from Nashville in Tennessee , US, claimed she had tried shifting the weight from her ‘post-menopausal’ body naturally, but nothing had proved effective. Pictured, with husband Ken at her son Chase’s wedding<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Semaglutide, the ingredient behind Ozempic, has long been hailed a game-changer in tackling obesity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Administered weekly, the drug\u2014manufactured by Novo Nordisk\u2014is designed to help type 2\u00a0diabetes<\/a> patients control their blood sugar levels or for obese people to lose weight<\/a>\u00a0for health purposes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the injections, known collectively\u00a0as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), are known to cause worrying side effects such as pancreatitis\u2014when the pancreas suddenly becomes inflamed\u2014or gastrointestinal issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recalling her terrifying ordeal, Ms Eastburn said: ‘I would say think long and hard before taking a GLP-1 as it almost killed me.<\/p>\n

‘If you care about your family or people that you love, think about them having to live life without you as it might kill you. Being thin is not worth losing your life.<\/p>\n

‘I’d been struggling with my weight for years. I was post-menopause and my whole metabolism just changed and I had tried everything to lose weight.<\/p>\n

‘When I went to see my doctor, my doctor said I’d benefit from a GLP-1 and I trusted them.<\/p>\n

‘At first, it seemed like a miracle as the weight was just coming off.<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

\u00a0After her ‘trusted’ doctor suggested she was eligible for the weight loss injection, she began on a low dose of the drug and soon noticed her weight drop. Pictured, in hospital after surgery<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

‘I was trying to get thin for my son’s wedding and I knew I had to do something drastic as I was desperate to look better. I didn’t want to hate the wedding photos for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

‘[By July 1st], I had lost 15lbs and I felt better and that there was hope.<\/p>\n

‘But when my weight loss plateaued, I upped my dose so I could get to my goal of losing 20lbs.’<\/p>\n

She added: ‘The first week the nausea was uncontrollable and I had no desire to eat or drink anything.<\/p>\n

‘The heartburn was at an all-new level and it was excruciatingly painful all day long.<\/p>\n

‘In week two, I went wedding dress shopping and I was sick as a dog.<\/p>\n

‘I was dry heaving and I was fighting the urge to throw up all day. I then had violent diarrhoea for four days.<\/p>\n

‘[On July 15th], when we landed, an ambulance took me to the hospital straight away and I was diagnosed with a burst appendix.<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After her weight plateaued in July, weeks before the wedding, the mum-of-three suddenly increased her dosage\u2014which experts have long warned against. Pictured Ms Eastburn with son Chase at his wedding<\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

‘It was terrifying. Within 15 minutes of leaving the airport I was in a hospital room. The doctor said my appendix had ruptured and they needed to remove it.’<\/p>\n

After having her appendix removed, Ms Eastburn spent four days in hospital, which saw her miss her son Chase’s rehearsal dinner.<\/p>\n

Despite being discharged in time for the wedding, she spent the day in pain and unable to walk properly, she added.<\/p>\n

Following the celebrations, she was hospitalised again over concerns about internal bleeding, delaying their flight home until July 29.<\/p>\n

Ms Eastburn said: ‘I was really upset and when I couldn’t go to the dress rehearsal I just cried as I felt like it was my fault as I did this to myself.<\/p>\n

‘I missed all of this as I wanted to be thin and it broke my heart.<\/p>\n

‘On the wedding day we went at the very last minute as I was in so much pain. Sitting on a chair was so painful and I could barely walk.<\/p>\n

‘When my son saw me sitting in the front row, he came over and hugged me for the longest time and bawled like a baby.<\/p>\n

\"After <\/p>\n

After having her appendix removed, Ms Eastburn spent four days in hospital, which saw her miss her son Chase’s rehearsal dinner<\/p>\n

‘For the longest time, we didn’t think I was going to be at the wedding, much less live to tell anyone about it.’<\/p>\n

She added: ‘My weight was the last thing on my mind at the wedding and I was so swollen and my stomach was so puffy.<\/p>\n

‘It was the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen and to see my son marry the woman of his dreams was amazing.<\/p>\n

‘I didn’t care about my size as I was just so proud to be there. It was hard to stand and do the mother-son dance, but I was so grateful.<\/p>\n

‘I will never jeopardise or endanger myself again with any drugs to lose weight as that was too close of a call.’<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk told the Daily Mail: ‘We understand and empathise with the health challenges this patient has faced. While we cannot comment on this particular incident, the safety and wellbeing of patients taking our medicines is our top priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We strongly recommend that all patients stay in close contact with their healthcare professional for proper diagnosis, ongoing guidance, and careful monitoring.<\/p>\n

‘It is important to note that Ozempic is a prescription-only medicine, meaning that it must be prescribed by a healthcare professional under strict supervision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Patients must make any decisions about treatment together with their healthcare professional so that their doctor can assess whether it is appropriate to prescribe the medicine or not, based on their assessment of the patient\u2019s individual medical profile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Accessing prescription-only medicines without a valid prescription or without the care of a healthcare professional can pose a direct danger to health.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes as a a Mail on Sunday\u00a0investigation in January revealed<\/a>\u00a0almost 400 Brits had been hospitalised\u2014some with life-threatening complications\u2014since the rollout of weight loss jabs.<\/p>\n

Most of the reactions were gastrointestinal issues such as persistent nausea and diarrhoea, which leave some patients with \u2018severe dehydration’.<\/p>\n

But some doctors warned they were seeing patients with \u2018serious, life-threatening complications\u2019 including seizures, bowel obstruction and inflammation of the pancreas, known as pancreatitis.<\/p>\n

Under official guidelines, only patients who have a body mass index (BMI) of over 35 and at least one weight-related health problem like high blood pressure, or those who have a BMI of 30 to 34.9 and meet the criteria for\u00a0referral to a specialist weight management service,\u00a0should be prescribed weight loss jabs.<\/p>\n

In the UK, law forbids the sale of such drugs without a prescription from a medical professional.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman has told how she suffered a burst appendix after taking blockbuster weight loss jab Ozempic, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[776,97,59,102,578,24960,17467,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-43481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-ozempic","13":"tag-tennessee","14":"tag-the-chase","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}