A 19-year-old college student, Josephine Nasr, died after taking the GLP-1 weight loss drug tirzepatide. Nasr, a law student from Corona, California, was found unresponsive in her London dorm room on September 23, 2025. The drug, marketed under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound, is part of a class of medications that suppress appetite. According to the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index, 15 percent of Americans have used weight loss medications, including GLP-1 drugs.
Nasr had been prescribed Zepbound by a U.S. doctor and began taking it in the summer of 2025. Although her BMI was classified as “overweight,” she was not considered obese. On the evening of her death, she reported feeling nauseous and vomiting to her family. Concerned for her well-being, her sister ordered IV fluids for her, but after failing to reach her by phone, contacted college security.
Security personnel discovered Nasr on the bathroom floor approximately two hours after her last phone call. An empty vial of a GLP-1 drug was found nearby. Emergency services declared her dead at the scene. An inquest held on August 3 at East London Coroner’s Court determined that her cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, attributed to a congenital heart condition known as myocardial bridging. The pathologist noted that the vomiting from the medication could have led to low blood sugar and an electrolyte imbalance, contributing to the arrhythmia. Nasr's family described her as a joyful person who loved helping others.