Man left permanently disabled with 'dinosaur hands' after inhaling up to 500 laughing gas balloons a week
A man has admitted that laughing gas has 'ruined his life' after inhaling up to 500 balloons a week left him permanently disabled.
Connor Wilton, 27, from Derbyshire, UK, is now in a 'wheelchair and crutches' after he was found by his father 'collapsed' on the floor in November 2022.
Admitting that he had been 'abusing' laughing gas for years, Connor was rushed to hospital where doctors gave him a horror diagnosis.
Due to severe nerve damage, vitamin B12 deficiency and subacute degeneration of the spinal cord from nitrous oxide use, the 27-year-old was left paralysed and spent three months in a hospital bed and four months in a neuro rehabilitation unit.
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In hospital, Connor's hands had little muscle control, resulting in them bending like 'dinosaur hands', and he was forced to wear a nappy for the first five months.
The former mental health rehabilitation worker was told that he 'never be able to stand up straight' again and now takes up to 30 tablets a day.
His laughing gas habit began when he was 18 on a lads holiday, and Connor started to consume up to 480 balloons containing the illegal drug every weekend.
He said: "I was abusing it for years. Not badly. I did it socially at weekends and when I went to Kavos and stuff like that.
"During October 2022 I was smashing it every weekend. I started to be sick all the time. I didn't think it was to do with nitrous oxide to be honest. I was quite naive.
"Then I started to get tingly feet. One day my dad found me collapsed on the floor from smashing laughing gas.
"I couldn't feel my legs properly. I was moaning about not being able to wee. I couldn't wee for six days. It's because my nerves and muscles had failed on my bottom half."
He confessed: "It was absolutely horrible. I couldn't control my muscles. My hands were starting to bend like little dinosaur hands. I couldn't pick up my phone properly.
"My bowels failed and I kept sh***ing myself. I was really psychotic for 10 days.
"I had a catheter for five months. I had to wear a nappy for five months and I was in 24/7 bed care. I spent two full months hoisted. I couldn't feel or move my legs. My hands slowly started to get better.
"I was hoisted into a chair out of my bed everyday. I was bed bound for ten weeks. I didn't stand up until the week before Christmas with help from two workers.
"I had a nerve conduction study. It was quite a lengthy process for finding out what was happening. The doctors knew it was from balloons but not what damage it had done.
"The nitrous oxide took all the B12 out of my body and starved my body of oxygen so I was having vitamin B12 injected into my legs every two days for three months.
"Now I have to have it once every three months. Still to this day I'm between a wheelchair and crutches.
"The amount of nerves I've damaged, some are too far gone and will never repair. I will never be able to stand up straight. I've got 35 degree drop feet.
"My legs spasm a lot. I get a lot of pain first thing in the morning. The muscles lock in my leg. I scream in pain.
"My bowels still don't work. I don't even know if I'm going to s**t myself in public.
"I'm quite independent now but I'm on crutches all the time. I have an adaptive car, which I drive with my hands."
Connor said he would 'never do it again' and that 'it's not worth being like this'.
Nitrous Oxide became illegal in the UK in November 2023.
Anish Vij