$820,000 Settlement – Stroke Resulting from Weight Loss Supplement

We have all heard the line “if it sounds too good to be true it must be.”  Sadly, we know that’s usually what happens in real life.  We just don’t know it until after it happens.

In this case, our client heard about weight loss supplements at a vitamin store.  She had recently given birth to a baby and was trying to lose the weight she gained during pregnancy. The employees of the store recommended this product.  She bought some of these supplements after seeing athletes on TV talk about ephedra and how they lost weight and had energy when they used it.

Our client, a young woman, took the nutritional supplement for the first time one afternoon. The next day she took a second dose and shortly thereafter suffered a stroke. At 31 years old with a young baby, she was a stroke victim with no underlying conditions or medical history that would suggest she was at risk for a stroke.

Leighton Panoff Law’s John Leighton was hired by this family to investigate a product liability case against the manufacturer.  Mr. Leighton determined that the product was a concoction of ephedra and other nutritional supplements and herbs which were never tested and not even developed by a pharmacologist, doctor, toxicologist or pharmacist.  It was put together by a guy who was in prison when he starting experimenting with this supplement.

After litigation began, the manufacturer filed for bankruptcy.  The case was resolved through bankruptcy and MDL litigation. Mr. Leighton recovered $820,000 in this product liability case resulting from the use of an ephedra weight loss supplement.  Heimberger v. NVE.  The supplement was since removed from store shelves.

 

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