A woman from Australia has given an urgent warning about using nitrous oxide following being unable to walk for two months after using laughing gas regularly.
Tamika Dudley, from Brisbane, was a regular user of the drug after she tried it for the first time last year.
Sharing her story on Facebook, the 21-year-old wrote: "I would be doing them before clubbing, at 'kick-ons', when friends would come over, when I was bored.
Advert
"I would always get offered to try nangs [a slang term for nitrous oxide] from friends at parties, they were doing it for fun and I always said no. I knew it was dangerous.
"But then in March, I decided to just give it a go. It was a 30-second-high, and all I kept thinking was 'I don't want to die' because the feeling was so intense.
"But I was stupid, and eventually I was doing it socially, before clubbing, after clubbing, I'd do it with friends all the time."
Advert
It started to go wrong in May last year, when the hairdresser woke up to a weird tingling sensation in her hands and feet.
She said: "It slowly creeped up my calves, to my thighs, and then tuned into numbness. I went to hospital and they performed an MRI, CT scan and I had a lumbar puncture done.
"I tried to get up from my bed, but I couldn't walk. I was completely paralysed. The doctors told me that it could be permanent and that I may never walk again.
Advert
"It was the scariest day of my life, to know I could be in a wheelchair forever and never walk again.
"I still have around 50 percent numbness in my feet and fingers. Sometimes I burn myself, because I don't know if something is hot or cold, or I'll accidentally cut myself and not realise blood is coming out.
"My nerves are damaged, and I'm not really sure if I'll ever fully recover. I thought nangs were cool. I would post videos of myself on Snapchat doing them, and I'd have people tell me 'you're an idiot, you'll end up a vegetable'.
Advert
"I always thought they didn't know anything. I never thought something like this would happen to me, but it did.
"I see so many young people doing it, the same way I did, and that's why I want to raise awareness about the dangers of it. People think it's harmless, that it's just 'laughing gas'. But it could kill you, or leave you permanently paralysed.
"It's a 30-second high that could ruin your entire life."
Featured Image Credit: Caters