FLEMING ISLAND – No parent can understand their child’s agony if they are hopelessly committed to erasing a lifetime of desperation. They can’t know the depths of doubt, the willingness to risk their well-being for another shortcut when nothing else works.

And when another of a long line of get-skinny quick diet schemes may have cost her daughter her life, Kathlyn Walden learned to channel her doubt and sorrow into tenacity.

Kathlyn is angry at the people who hurt her daughter, angry at the people who let it happen, angry at the people who should have known the dangers or warning signs of drugs that the Food and Drug Administration so flippantly approved.

When millions explored every option to shed pounds, the FDA may have skipped a few steps.

“I want to do awareness. The rest, I don’t give a diddly squat,” she said, clutching the memorial card that was distributed at her daughter’s funeral. “A lawsuit isn’t going to bring her back. I’ve probably got a lawsuit. I have one very easily, but that’s not my goal at all. I want people to understand the dangers of these weight loss drugs.”

Like too many others, Tanya Chrystene Marsh spent most of her adult desperately trying to lose weight. Fad diets and pills only brought short-term success and failure. Microwave meals, counting carbs, skipping meals. Hoping for a miracle, she turned to the newest craze, a GLP-1 receptor agonist that started with the Type-2 diabetes injection drug Ozempic.

Tanya was under a doctor’s care and taking a GLP-1 injection approved by the FDA for weight loss called Wegovy. After five injections, her stomach became knotted and painful. At first, she believed it was a price for success. But her pain became severe. Her bowels were blocked. She became bloated and nauseous. She went to the hospital on Friday but was released, knowing she had an appointment with her doctor on Monday.

Tanya spent Sunday with her mother on Fleming Island watching football. She nibbled on scrambled eggs, peanut butter and graham crackers and electrolyte drinks. She felt a little better and drove home to Orange Park that night.

“She said she was OK,” Kathlyn said. “She said she could drive home. She just lived down at Wells Road. So she called me Monday morning and said, ‘Mom, I’ve got to go back to the emergency room.’ I said OK. She said she couldn’t go to the bathroom and she was having a hard time breathing. Why didn’t she call 911? Why didn’t I call 911 that morning? I can tell you, I kick myself every day about that. I texted her. I said, ‘I’m on my way.’ She told me she’d meet me in the driveway. She said she was wearing her nightgown. I said, ‘OK, put a jacket on.’ It was cool in the morning. She said, ‘I’m trying. I’m dying.’ I figured the dying was her pain.”

That was the last thing Kathlyn ever heard from her daughter.

When she arrived, she had yet to get another response: a text or a knock at the door. She called the Orange Park Police Department. She said an officer arrived immediately.

“He took the key, opened the door, put his arm back, and said, ‘You might not want to come in.’ She was [laying] there on the floor,” Kathlyn said.

Tanya Chrystene Marsh died on Jan. 15, 2024. She was 51. There was no autopsy, but the death certificate listed obesity, bowel obstruction and intestinal blockage as the likely causes of death.

According to the FDA, side effects associated with Wegovy are severe abdominal pain and intestinal blockages.

Kathlyn has reached out to the hospital for answers why an autopsy wasn’t ordered or if the doctor or staff was trained to know the symptoms of reactions to GLP-1 injections, and her calls have yet to be returned.

The FDA has approved 18 GLP-1s – 14 for Type-2 diabetes injections and four (Semaglutide, Tirzepatide, Wegovy and Mounjari) for weight loss. However, all have been utilized by some who want quicker and easier weight loss results.

Ozempic and Wegovy are receptor agonists. They mimic a natural hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which significantly manages blood sugar and appetite. They increase the release of insulin from the pancreas whenever blood sugar levels rise. Insulin helps the body use sugar for energy. It also prevents the pancreas from releasing glucagon and prompts the liver to release glucose into the bloodstream, decreasing blood sugar levels. That slows the speed at which food leaves the stomach and enters the intestines, which makes you feel fuller long after meals to curb your appetite.

However, after 18 people using Ozempic reported intestinal blockages in 2023, the FDA ordered the potential warning be listed on the packaging.

The FDA has received over 8,500 reports of gastrointestinal issues among people taking medications like Ozempic and Wegovy.

Compounding the relatively new weight loss fad is the influx of fake online counterfeits. According to the Florida/U.S. Virgin Island Poison Information Center, there has been an increase in black market compounds being sold as GLP-1. But like substances laced with fentanyl, they can be extremely dangerous, said Media Relations/Education Coordinator Mike McCormick.

“We’re seeing a big uptick of people selling the stuff to make your own weight-loss shots online, and some of them are dangerous,” he said. “You really don’t know what you’re buying. It’s really dangerous.”

Kathlyn said there are no shortcuts to losing weight. She said it’s not a change in diet. It’s a lifestyle change.

“I don’t understand how the FDA approved something with so many severe side effects,” she said. “I want people to know. It’s just very frustrating in the fact that it sounds like so many just don’t care. My daughter only had five doses. We’ll never know whether it was a blockage or if it was a mass inside her.

“This has been a total disaster for me. I know people are overweight. They’re always looking for a miracle. I’m the first to admit it. But it’s not a miracle when you lose your daughter and you’re left all alone.”