Warning: This article contains discussion of drug addiction which some readers may find distressing.
A 19-year-old weighing just three and a half stone was 'left paralysed' from head to toe after a £30,000 addiction to ketamine.
Isabella Gawley, from Liverpool, was just 16 when she took the horse tranquilliser drug at a party in October 2021.
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The teenager started using it on a daily basis after her grandmother died, leaving her bed-bound at three and a half stone, or 22kg.
She kept getting up to go to the toilet 'every five minutes' due to the kidney and bladder damage caused by the anaesthetic.
By 25 October, 2024, Isabella had spent over £30,000 on ketamine and was taken to hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Aged 18 at the time, she took the drug five days prior, but the effects remained long-lasting.
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“I’m forever thankful for surviving the cardiac arrest,” Isabella, who is now six months sober, said.
“I’m one of the lucky ones who didn’t come out of it with something that would affect me for the rest of my life, like paralysis or not being able to talk again.
“When my heart started again, I was fortunate. I got given that second chance that so many don’t get.”
But it wasn't the cardiac arrest that stopped Isabella from taking the drug, rather it was the look on her mother's face.
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“My mum watched me effectively die in front of her eyes and no mum should watch their 18-year-old daughter nearly die in front of them,” she explained.
“I really feel I wasn’t meant to come back. It was a living miracle.”
At the height of her addiction, Isabella had left school and got into the 'wrong crowd'.
She was able to afford the drug by splitting it with her friends using 'pocket money'.
When the ambulance arrived at her house, paramedics carried out CPR and used defibrillators to try to shock her back to life.
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Although she temporarily had to wear incontinence pads, Isabella said she no longer suffers from extreme pain.
She said: “I used to sit on my floor instead of my bed because I was buckled over in pain.
“I’d put heaters behind my back because it was the only thing that would help. And one time one hairdryer melted into my bed.
“I’m quite young and I feel like I have to speak about it and break a taboo around it. It’s hard but it’s going to be the best thing to do. I’d rather tell people and help them than keep it to myself.”
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Issuing a warning, she added: “Kids need to understand that your family are going to watch you and see your gravestone, which I didn’t realise at the time – I know that there are 12-year-olds who are just damaging their bodies from ketamine.
“I’ve come back and I’m a million times stronger, both mentally and physically. I came out of hospital and, although it has left me with permanent damage, the pains now and again are nothing compared to what I used to feel.”
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can talk to FRANK. You can call 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or contact through their website 24/7, or livechat from 2pm-6pm any day of the week
Anish Vij