$5.2B awarded in latest lawsuit against Las Vegas-based bottled water company

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A jury in Southern Nevada has awarded $5.2 billion to 15 plaintiffs in the most recent lawsuit against the now-bankrupt Las Vegas-based company Real Water after its product was linked to liver illnesses.

Daisy Wei, who spoke with 8 News Now Wednesday, was one of the plaintiffs represented in the case.

“I felt so helpless,” she recalled of her sickness. “So hopeless.”

Wei described her severe symptoms, which she said lasted for months.

“I couldn’t get out of bed,” she recalled. “I started turning all yellow, jaundice, throwing up.”

Wei said she fought her way through acute liver failure in 2020 and was dangerously close to a transplant, with at least nine hospital stays in a year.

“I was so scared to go to sleep,” Wei said. “Because I was thinking I wasn’t going to wake up.”

Wei told 8 News Now she and her doctors couldn’t find the reason behind her illness for months, but they eventually linked it to her longtime consumption of Real Water.

“You never expect something that is supposed to be keeping you alive,” Attorney Breanna Switzler said. “To actually be poisoning you.”

The now-closed company came under fire in 2021, with severe sickness, liver transplants, and one death linked to its product.

Wei and the 14 other plaintiffs in this most recent lawsuit were represented by Kemp Jones LLP, with that massive payout one of several reached in the past year.

“It’s a wake-up call to the industry,” Switzler said. “To ensure that you are making a safe product and you are testing a product you give to the public.”

Switzler said litigation came down to hydrazine, a toxic chemical found in the water. It is also used in rocket fuel and is directly linked to liver failure, according to Kemp Jones.

Switzler told 8 News Now the water wasn’t tested properly, which allowed the consumption of the substance.

“If adequate testing was done,” she said. “Who knows if we would have even been here today?”

Wei said she is grateful to be alive, and while this settlement can’t change the past, she hopes it will help her move forward.

“It’s kind of like a little light at the end of the tunnel,” she concluded.

In a previous lawsuit, an attorney for Real Water told jurors the company tested the water but did not know to test for hydrazine.

Wei told 8 News Now her health has improved, but she has permanent scarring on her liver and will have to undergo medical testing and treatments for the remainder of her life.

In June 2021, the FDA announced that Real Water had agreed to cease operations until they could comply with federal regulations.

In August 2021, the company officially filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

In June, a jury awarded $3 billion in damages to eight other Las Vegas residents who sued Real Water.

In October 2023, a $228 million settlement was also reached.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.