A man who was once the face of weight loss jabs has come out to reveal the horrid side effects he claims left him unable to walk in a lawsuit against his doctor, who claims overprescribed the meds.
Brad Roberts was on a high after GLP-1 weight loss drugs led to rapid weight loss that saw him lose almost half his body weight.
GLP-1s include Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, and mimic the body's hormones to make you feel fuller.
The 44-year-old shed 24 pounds within a month, and by half a year, he saw 153 pounds fall off him.
Advert
Because of his progress, he opted into appearing on a commercial for the drug on behalf of telehealth company LifeMD, which was his employer at the time.
He explained in the advert that his father’s death led him to ‘fill the void with food’.
He said: "For the first time in five years, I am standing next to my children in photos and I feel confident, I feel the difference."
However, his rapid weight loss was allegedly causing him internal problems he wasn’t aware of.
Roberts has since filed a $35.8 million lawsuit against the doctor who treated him and has claimed that from November 2022 and 2023 the doctor prescribed 'overlapping' drugs to increase his weight loss.
He and his wife Stacey are lodging the suit against Dr Tony Puopolo for medical malpractice for overprescribing him the drugs via his old employer.
In the lawsuit, which was obtained by UNILAD, Dr Puopolo is accused of prescribing 'multiple overlapping and conflicting doses of glucagon-like peptide-1 (“GLP-1”) weight-loss medication'.
He was also accused of prescribing the meds at dosages higher than the manufacturer's guidelines, and giving Roberts drugs that were not FDA approved.
The lawsuit reads: "Dr. Puopolo’s combining experimental peptides and weight loss medications with GLP-1s caused debilitating injuries to Brad Roberts and significant harm to him and his family."
Multiple affidavits surrounding the lawsuit claim Roberts can’t communicate, has quadruple vision at times, suffers from memory loss, and is in a lot of pain.
According to the suit, he now almost entirely spends his days in bed due to the pain in his stomach, muscles and joints.
He also claims to have 'severe equilibrium and imbalance issues, making it hard for him to stand and walk, especially up and down steps’ after his fatty tissue in his ears deteriorated.
The suit also claims Roberts was losing up to 3.5lbs a week, and because of his weight loss, another doctor who treated the man from 2023 onwards, claimed his hearing got so bad because of the fat loss that 'everything sounds muffled as if he were underwater, all while constantly experiencing tinnitus (ringing in the ears)'.
The doctor said: "Loud noises make the tinnitus worse, causing severe piercing pain, pressure and migraine headaches. He wears wool caps over his ears in an attempt to muffle loud sounds."
Roberts has had at least six surgeries to help his hearing, but he says none have worked.
As per the Daily Mail, Dr Yadira Lockard, a psychologist who treated Roberts from 2015 onwards, alleged that the man no longer has ‘the mental capacity to make life decision of any particular consequence to himself or on behalf of his family’ after noticing a shift in his mental health around December 2023, a year after his health journey.
Dr Lockard said Roberts mentioned how his ‘medical ailments had impacted his ability to function normally and had rendered it impossible for him to follow and / or understand his email correspondence, transmit email correspondence, read and understand correspondence that he received and focus and / or concentrate on any communication (whether oral or written).'
Dr Lockard said: “His teeth are constantly in pain and feel soft.
“The roof of his mouth is almost constantly burning, but at other times his whole mouth feels ice cold. His tongue feels swollen and he cannot eat anything that is firm. He relies on soft foods and protein shakes.”
A spokesperson for Dr Puopolo told the Daily Mail: "As we have explained in our court filings, the allegations in the case are meritless.
"We have already made a motion to the court to have the case dismissed as a matter of law, and we look forward to the court's decision on that motion."
UNILAD has contacted Dr Puopolo for a comment.
Britt Jones