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A Hawaii island man who claims he was forced to get a liver transplant after taking the diet supplement OxyELITE Pro is suing the manufacturer and the retailer that sold it to him.
Lawyers for Kenneth Waikiki, 22, of Kailua-Kona filed the lawsuit against Dallas-based USPlabs, company principals Jonathan Vincent Doyle and Jacob Geissler, and GNC Corp. in U.S. District Court in Honolulu on Thursday.
Waikiki’s is the second lawsuit filed against USPlabs and GNC in Hawaii this week.
Lawyers for Everine Van Houten filed their lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday. Van Houten, of Hilo, claims she suffered acute nonviral hepatitis from her consumption of OxyELITE Pro.
Waikiki claims he suffered liver failure requiring transplant surgery and other injuries after taking OxyELITE Pro in August.
State Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo said the department is investigating 48 cases of liver damage or acute hepatitis in patients who were exposed to OxyELITE Pro, including two people who needed liver transplants and a Maui woman who died.
The department ordered island retailers to take the weight-loss product off their shelves last month, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration notified the manufacturer that its product contained an ingredient not approved by the agency as a dietary supplement.
The Health Department collected Hawaii’s inventory of OxyELITE Pro on Monday but put off plans to destroy it after a local lawyer asked the state attorney general’s office to preserve the product as evidence in upcoming litigation.
