Dying, rotting organs, blurred vision and severe depression… how our fat jab joy turned to terror

FOR the first few months, Alisha Trafford’s Mounjaro journey was “magical”.

The 25-year-old began taking the ‘King Kong’ of weight loss injections in February 2025, ordering the £135 jab from an online pharmacy. But within a matter of months, doctors discovered one of her organs was rotting inside her. And she’s not alone, we speak to four women who faced the devastating consequences of the ‘miracle’ GLP-1 drugs – as two new, official, side effects are reported in the UK.

Alisha watched the pounds fall away – eventually shedding 3.5st – and initially dismissed the odd pain.

But by the time she had used her second pen, those pains had become “intense”.

Just months later, the healthcare assistant from Hull was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered her pancreas was rotting away and dying.

She is now one of thousands of Brits facing devastating, life-changing and, in some cases, deadly side effects linked to the ‘miracle’ medicines.

It comes after the UK’s medicine watchdog last week recognised that GLP-1 injections like Mounjaro and Wegovy could increase the risk of pancreatitis.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said severe cases – where the pancreas can rot and die – are rare.

It was followed by a warning that the jabs could lead to blindness.

The MHRA collects reports of side effects through its Yellow Card Scheme.

And while nausea, diarrhoea and constipation are by far the most commonly reported, organ decay, fatal neurological disorders, suicidal thoughts and blindness are some of the more troubling.

None of these cases prove the jabs cause these conditions, only that they have been flagged as possible links.

Alisha tells Sun Health: “I’d been struggling with some abdominal pain for a while, but I didn’t really think much of it, I dismissed it.

“Then one day the pain got really, really intense.”

She left work early and, within hours of getting home, rang for an ambulance after “vomiting continuously”.

She adds: “The pain was getting more intense and it felt quite similar to what I imagine a heart attack would feel like.”

Once admitted to hospital, doctors diagnosed her with pancreatitis.

The condition is usually short-lived and treated with pain relief and fluids but Alisha’s condition developed into pancreatic necrosis, a life-threatening complication in which parts of the pancreas begin to die.

It can lead to sepsis, which left untreated, can prove fatal.

“The pain was agonising and my body was exhausted,” Alisha says.

“I lost two stone while I was in hospital because I couldn’t eat. The consultant was adamant in the end that it was Mounjaro.”

My life has completely been put on hold. I’ve been told the pancreatitis is probably going to come back and I’ll be at risk of that for the rest of my life now

Alisha Trafford

Alisha was hospitalised a total of three times and has been warned she will remain at risk of pancreatic problems for the rest of her life.

“My life has completely been put on hold,” she says.

“I’ve been told the pancreatitis is probably going to come back and I’ll be at risk of that for the rest of my life now. I was pretty much independent, I was healthy, I was getting on with my life, making plans for my future, now I’m just at risk constantly.”

Organ removal ops soar

It comes after specialist doctors called for research into a sharp rise in gallbladder removals.

The number of gallbladder surgeries recorded by NHS England in 2024-25 was at its highest level in the past decade.

Gallstones are listed as a common side effect of the jabs and the UK’s official medical licensing body said it was kept under “continual review“.

Mr Ahmed Ahmed, president of the British Obesity and Metabolic Specialist Society and a consultant in upper gastrointestinal surgery and lead bariatric surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, is among those raising the alarm.

The consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, tells Sun Health: “I’m seeing a lot more people coming in with gallstones, which are causing them symptoms and the need to have surgery to remove the gallbladder.

“A few years ago, none of the people with gallstones were on weight loss injections.

“And it’s not just me, this is an observation throughout the NHS, we’ve seen a 15 per cent increase in gallbladder removal operations just in the space of 12 months.

“There’s no other reason that we can think of, other than people losing weight quickly.”

Mr Ahmed says it’s rapid weight loss, already listed as a risk factor for gallstones by the NHS, rather than the jabs themselves, that’s the problem.

He says: “The way weight loss drugs work is they curtail your appetite, so you stop eating and that makes the gallbladder static.

“When your gallbladder is not contracting, the bile just stays stagnant, which can crystallize and form stones. We need more research to investigate this further, but at the moment, it’s just an association.”

Emma McDonald, from Oxford, had her gallbladder removed in October 2024, after losing 8st on Mounjaro.

Like Alisha, the 38-year-old brushed off pain as indigestion and carried on injecting the drug.

She’d been shocked to find she could no longer squeeze into her size 22 work trousers after pregnancy, and was desperate to shed the baby weight.

Within just one year, she shrunk from a size 24 to a 12.

But the content creator, from Oxford, was found to have a “substantially large” gallstone blocking her bile duct.

She was also diagnosed with a condition called cholecystitis – inflammation of the gallbladder.

Left untreated, it can lead to life-threatening complications like sepsis, gangrene and bowel perforation.

“I was told my gallbladder had gone rotten and Mounjaro was an exacerbating factor,” she says.

The horrors don’t end with rotting organs, as experts warn the jabs could also attack the eyes.

The MHRA issued a stark warning that the injections may increase the risk of a rare but devastating condition known as non-arteritic ischaemic anterior optic neuropathy, or NAION, often described as an “eye stroke”.

The condition strikes when blood flow to the optic nerve is suddenly cut off, starving it of oxygen.

It came after some 729 reports of eye disorders, including blindness and blurred vision.

‘Going blind’

Last year, Robbie Williams revealed to The Sun that he quit the jabs due to worsening blurry vision.

“I don’t believe it’s age – I believe it’s the jabs,” he said.

Dr Alexander Miras, a senior clinical lecturer and consultant in endocrinology at Imperial College London, says NAION is “a very, very rare condition linked with the use of weight loss medications, specifically with semaglutide” – the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic.

Weight loss jab users might be more likely to get NAION because they already have “diabetes or other conditions that affect the eye”, he says.

He adds: “I don’t think that the link has been clearly established.

“But I think it’s very reasonable to say to patients that if you experience any visual disturbances that are unusual and sudden, you need to report them.

“It’s important that people don’t just wait at home for things to get worse.”

Oonagh Van der Berg, 45, from Belfast, is terrified she is going blind.

Once blessed with perfect 20/20 vision, the financial crimes expert says her eyesight began to blur after six months on GLP-1 drugs.

“I fear the skinny jab is making me blind,” she says.

“It’s so bad I often can’t read my phone messages.”

I fear the skinny jab is making me blind

Oonagh Van der Berg

The mum-of-three began using Ozempic in January 2024 before switching to Mounjaro months later, losing 4st in the process.

“I had excellent vision but was shocked when it started blurring and I had bright light flashes in my eyes,” she says.

“Now I have short-sightedness and feel like I am going blind.”

Doctors diagnosed Oonagh with NAION in November 2025.

“I can’t see texts, phone numbers or small objects in front of me,” she says.

“The flashes of bright light appear suddenly and are blinding.”

Despite some studies suggesting jabs can boost mental health, MHRA Yellow Card data shows 2,849 reports of psychiatric disorders linked to the jabs, of which 11 have been fatal.

Jade Martin, 34, says increasing her Mounjaro dose left her battling such severe anxiety and depression that she could barely get out of bed.

She tells Sun Health: “My mood was on the floor and I had no interest in doing anything.

“I had low energy and such increased anxiety to the point when I could feel it in my chest.” It felt like a real depression.”

The stay-at-home mum from Hertfordshire had no history of mental health problems.

She began taking the jab in January 2025 when she tipped the scales at 16st, losing 3.5st in ten months.

It made me really tearful, it wasn’t a good space to be in. No amount of weight loss is worth feeling like that

Jade Martin

It was when her dose was increased, as prescribed, that her mental health collapsed.

“It was like you were in a black cloud and you couldn’t see beyond that,” she says.

“It made me really tearful, it wasn’t a good space to be in. No amount of weight loss is worth feeling like that. My mental health will always come first.”

Anxiety and depression are not currently listed as official side effects of Mounjaro.

Dr Miras says links between the two, so far, have been “almost completely been dismissed”.

Khalida Ismail, a professor of psychiatry and medicine, led a review by King’s College London that did not find evidence that GLP-1s increase the risk of psychiatric side effects.

Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Mounjaro, said in a statement: “Patient safety is Lilly’s top priority. We actively monitor, evaluate, and report safety information for all our medicines to the MHRA.

“Mounjaro should only be used when prescribed by, and with appropriate supervision from, a licensed healthcare professional.”

A spokesperson from Novo Nordisk, the drug giant behind Wegovy, added: “Patient safety is our top priority, and we take all reports of adverse events related to the use of our medicines very seriously.

“The benefit-risk profile of our GLP-1 medicines remains positive.”

Despite mounting concerns about side effects, Dr Mira said the advantages of these fat jabs still far outweigh the risks — at least for most people.

He said: “We have known about the possible side effects of GLP-1 treatments for almost two decades, as they have been used to treat diabetes.

“For the vast majority, the risks are small. But it is still vital that anyone experiencing severe side effects seeks medical help quickly.

“For most people who genuinely need them, they can be life changing and in some cases lifesaving.”