A mum has shared heartbreaking photos of her son in hospital after taking a £2 ecstasy pill, in a bid to spread awareness about the risks of drug use.
Odhran 'Odi' Hearty Coburn, from Dundalk, Co Louth, had taken an ecstasy pill while at a concert in Belfast on 25 June this year. The tablet turned out to be laced with rat poison, and Odi's temperature suddenly rocketed to 45 degrees.
His chance of survival was placed at just one percent.
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Odi's mum Grainne recalled how she and husband Alan had been at a wedding when they received a call saying their son was in Belfast Mater Hospital.
Grainne said: "We couldn't get a flight home from London until the next morning so I was in hysterics at the airport all night while Alan was pacing the floors waiting for our hourly updates from the hospital which always told us that Odi wasn't likely to see the next hour and we probably wouldn't make it back in time.
"My 73-year-old mother Josephine had travelled to the hospital but they wouldn't let her into Intensive Care because he was that critically ill."
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Odi, who was just 16 at the time, had managed to get himself to a paramedic at the Belsonic Concert in Belfast, telling them he didn't feel well and that he was a type one diabetic, having taken insulin 15 minutes beforehand.
"Within three minutes, he started seizing and convulsing. His temperature was 45 degrees and despite packing him in ice, it remained at 45 degrees for 39 hours," Grainne said.
When Odi's parents finally made it to hospital the next morning, he had gone into multiple organ failure.
Toxicology reports from the hospital later revealed the tablet in the teenager's system consisted of 78 percent rat poison.
"At the time we didn't know what had happened but later we found out that Odi had either been given or had taken MDMA (or ecstasy tablet) at the concert and it took 72 hours for toxicology to show that it contained 78 percent rat poison so our son didn't stand a hope in hell of making it," Grainne said.
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For 33 days, Odi remained in a bad way, but on the 34th day he finally opened his eyes.
Having managed to pull through against all odds, Odi is now back at school part time, while mum Grainne is determined to educate other teenagers about the risks involved with drug use.
"I'm extremely grateful of my miracle when I know other parents had to bury their children last summer because of MDMA," she said.
"If there's anything I want from this is to create more awareness of how available these drugs are and the damage they can do.
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"If, by sharing these pictures, it will stop even one other child from taking MDMA or any other drug, it will be worth it."
Featured Image Credit: Family handout
Topics: Ireland, World News, News, Drugs