I've got DEAD zones in my brain and can't feel my feet after mistaking my £160-a-day laughing gas high for harmless fun
The 29-year-old first tried laughing gas when she was just 21, while working at a bar in Michigan, US, in 2018.
11
11
11
By 2023, Rachel says she was forking out $220 every day -about £160 - to inhale eight two-litre tanks of the chemical compound.
Shocking photos show her breathing in the gas straight from a tank, which she claims was easy to buy from nearby convenience stores.
Her feet and right hand went numb during a bar shift in April 2024 so she visited the ER - but she was discharged after being told she had muscle spasms.
She admits she bought another tank of laughing gas the same day but was encouraged by a friend to return to hospital two days later and come clean about her nitrous oxide use.
Rachel was admitted to hospital right away and within just a few days she lost the ability to walk as her nerves "died" and her body "shut down'.
Following months of occupational and physical therapy and B12 injections, Rachel, who is now a receptionist, was able to turn her life around.
It has been more than a year since she last inhaled nitrous oxide and is sharing her story to warn others about its dangers.
Rachel, from Chicago, Illinois, said: "I was first introduced to nitrous oxide in 2018 at an EDM show.
"I was bartending in a bar right next to a venue and it was very big.
"I was 21 at the time, The high lasted a really short time and it just made me feel out of it.
"In 2022, I started working at the bar again and everyone had started to take nitrous oxide through these tanks.
"A lot of people take it out of the balloons as a safety method so you don't get frostbite but I was just hitting it straight out the nozzle.
"The biggest part for me is that the nitrous oxide was so accessible to me.
"[In 2023], I was using about eight of the two-litre tanks a day so I think I averaged spending around $220 a day on them, sometimes more.
11
11
"[At a shift in April 2024], my hips felt really tight. People thought I was drunk and I seemed intoxicated as the nitrous oxide was poisoning my brain.
"My feet and right hand were completely numb and it felt like my hips were broken and I could barely walk."
In the US, possession of nitrous oxide is legal but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has outlawed its distribution for purposes of human consumption.
But in the UK, possessing laughing gas is now illegal - with repeat users facing up to two years in prison.
After 10 days in hospital, Rachel was transferred to a rehabilitation centre where she spent a month undergoing occupational and physical therapy 30 hours a week for a month.
During these sessions, she says she had to learn to walk and write again, as well as teach herself how to brush her teeth.
Rachel was then discharged to her parents' house, where she spent the next five months in continual therapy and had to use a walker.
Rachel said: "I lost the ability to function in the hospital. I couldn't hold my phone and I couldn't go to the bathroom and had to catheterise myself.
Nitrous oxide - the facts
NITROUS oxide - also known as laughing gas or hippy crack - was recently made a Class C due to the dangers associated with the drug.
It can cause a range of health issues and in some cases can even be fatal.
Some common side effects from inhaling the gas are dizziness, nausea, disorientation, loss of balance and weakness in legs, according to a study on its risks published to the National Library of Medicine.
Nitrous oxide can impair memory and thinking, the research mentioned. Some users might also feel anxious or paranoid.
According to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF), the gas from nitrous oxide bulbs is intensely cold, sometimes as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius.
Inhaling directly from the canister or crackers - handheld devices used to 'crack' open canister - can cause frostbite on the nose, lips and throat, even the vocal cords.
The icy chill of the gas canisters can also cause cold burns to the hands.
Long term, heavy use of laughing gas can cause a lack of vitamin B12. Severe deficiency can lead to serious nerve damage, causing tingling and numbness in the fingers and toes.
Lack of B12 can also cause damage to the spinal cord.
In some cases, frequent and prolonged use of nitrous oxide has been linked to thromboembolic events - this means a blood clot has gotten stuck and caused an obstruction.
The so-called laughing gas has also resulted in deaths.
"All the nerves in my body that you don't think about [weren't working]. I couldn't go to the toilet on my own.
"The nitrous that they're selling you is not cut with oxygen so it stops your body from producing B12 which is a vitamin which helps protect the myelination of your spine and nerves.
"All of mine had died and my body was just shutting down.
"My nerves were firing on and off as they were dying so it felt like muscle spasms.
"For the first couple of days, I just watched my body lose all function. I then woke up the next day and couldn't walk."
More than a year on, Rachel still has to take oral B12 medication and can't feel some of her toes.
She plans to become a drugs support worker in future and is urging others to not inhale nitrous oxide as "the 30-second high is not worth it".
Rachel said: "I now have a bunch of dead zones in my brain and these don't come back. It's like rat poison.
"Since coming out [of hospital] I haven't touched nitrous oxide again and I wouldn't do now.
"Just because something is sold in a store, doesn't mean it is safe to use. They will sell it to you until you can't pee on your own.
"The end stage of this is you will end up in the hospital and it's just a [matter of] when this will happen to you and when you will wake up and not be able to feel anything."
11
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
21 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump signs order to ensure 'resilient' supply chain for essential medicines in US
Aug 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at ensuring a "resilient" supply chain for essential medicines in the U.S. by filling the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve with critical drug components, the White House said on Wednesday.
The Guardian
44 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Social apnoea': sleep disorder could worsen at weekends, research suggests
Letting your hair down at the weekend might be a well-known recipe for a hangover, but researchers say it might also increase the severity of a common sleep disorder. Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) involves complete pauses in breathing or partial reductions in airflow that arise because muscles in the back of the throat relax, causing the airways to narrow or close. It is more common in groups such as older people and people who are overweight or obese. Now researchers have found the severity of the condition increases at the weekend. The study cannot prove the cause, but suggests it could be down to lifestyle factors such an increase in drinking and smoking, or changes in the type or patterns of sleep – all of which can increase the risk of the condition. As a result, they have called the phenomenon 'social apnoea'. 'Obviously, people tend to drink more on the weekend. They tend to smoke more on the weekend if they are prone to smoking,' said Prof Danny Eckert, a co-author of the research at Flinders University in Australia, adding that as well as a possible effect from irregular sleep patterns, it might also be that people were less likely to use devices such as continuous positive airway pressure (Cpap) machines to manage the condition at the weekend. The researchers say regardless of the underlying cause, the results matter given the health and safety implications of OSA. It is known to raise the risk of conditions including stroke, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, and can also affect driving safety as a result of sleepiness, have an impact on relationships, and reduce quality of life. Writing in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Eckert and colleagues report how they analysed de-identified data from 70,052 people – the majority of whom were middle-aged, male, and overweight – who used a commercially available under-mattress sleep sensor that can track heart rate, snoring and sleep apnoea. All participants had four or more sleep recordings a week, at least 28 sleep apnoea measurements a year, and five or more breathing disruptions an hour during sleep, on average, a year. The team found the odds of moderate to severe sleep apnoea, meaning 15 or more breathing interruptions an hour, were 18% higher on Saturdays compared with Wednesdays, and the effect was more pronounced in men and people under the age of 60. They also found weekend catch-up sleep of 45 minutes or more, compared with less than six minutes, and social jetlag – in other words, a clock-shift in sleep patterns – of 60 minutes or more, compared with less than 18 minutes, was associated with 47% and 38% greater odds of having moderate to severe OSA respectively. Dr Sriram Iyer, an NHS respiratory and sleep consultant, who was not involved in the work, said the study highlighted the night-to-night variability in OSA symptoms, and the team's assumptions about the cause of the weekend uptick were 'perfectly reasonable'. Ryan Chin Taw Cheong, a consultant ENT and sleep surgeon at the Cleveland clinic, London, praised the size of the study, saying it was the first of its kind to look at variability in the severity of the condition throughout the week. While he noted that study did not include data on participants' lifestyles, meaning it could not prove the cause of the increased severity of OSA at the weekends, he said factors such as smoking and drinking were known to exacerbate symptoms, and addressing such issues – alongside diet and weight – should be one of the first steps taken to tackle the condition. 'With the best intentions, we can try to treat you medically. But if you're consuming lots of alcohol or smoking heavily, whatever we're doing as medical professionals will be just a drop in the ocean,' Cheong said.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
CDC shooting marks latest in a string of hostility directed at health workers. Many aren't surprised
A barrage of bullets launched at the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week by a man authorities say was angry over COVID-19 vaccinations is the latest attack directed at health care workers amid hostility lingering from the pandemic. Some public health care workers say the shooting that killed a police officer and rattled the CDC campus shouldn't be surprising in the face of ongoing misinformation and animosity about the safety of immunizations. 'All of us, anybody who stands up for science or vaccines, will at some level get hate mail or a phone call that's unnerving or a death threat,' said Paul Offit, the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. Just four years ago, while hospitals overflowed with unvaccinated patients, school board members, local leaders and doctors were regularly confronted in public with taunts comparing them to the Taliban, Nazis and leaders of Japanese internment camps. Sometimes the conflicts descended into violence and harassment. The distrust and anger that grew since then has been amplified by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said Offit, who heads the vaccine education center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Kennedy has been a leading voice in spreading false information about vaccines, scientists and public health leaders, often using heated rhetoric that says they have caused mass death and injury. People he describes in such language have said his comments have led to threats, intimidation and even violence. Kennedy denounces violence but criticizes CDC's work Kennedy, who toured the CDC campus on Monday, said no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others and called political violence wrong. But he went on to criticize the agency's pandemic response. ' One of the things that we saw during COVID is that the government was overreaching in its efforts to persuade the public to get vaccinated, and they were saying things that are not always true,' Kennedy said during a television interview with Scripps News later in the day. A spokesperson for Kennedy blasted any notion that blamed vaccine misinformation for Friday's attack. 'This narrative is pure fiction, built on anonymous complaints and a willful disregard for the facts,' said Andrew Nixon of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 'Secretary Kennedy is not advancing an 'anti-vaccine agenda' — he is advancing a pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability agenda.' Authorities have said that 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White had written about his discontent with the COVID-19 vaccine before he opened fire on the CDC. White also had verbalized thoughts of suicide, which led to law enforcement being contacted several weeks before the shooting, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. White died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Friday after killing DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose. Shooting rattles CDC campus Following the attack, CDC employees were asked to scrape off old CDC parking decals from their vehicles. But even before that, some workers had taken steps to become less visible, including not wearing their public health service uniform, said Yolanda Jacobs, a union leader who represents some CDC workers. The CDC's new director told employees this week that no act of violence can diminish their mission to protect public health. 'We know that misinformation can be dangerous. Not only to health, but to those that trust us and those we want to trust,' Dr. Susan Monarez told employees during an 'all-hands' meeting Tuesday, her first since the attack capped her first full week on campus as director. The federal agency, tasked with tracking diseases and responding to health threats, has been hit by widespread staff cuts, key resignations and heated controversy over long-standing CDC vaccine policies upended by Kennedy. 'What happened on Friday is a direct result of that misinformation,' said Sarah Boim, a former CDC worker whose job was targeted for elimination earlier this year. 'Health Secretary Kennedy is one of the biggest pushers of misinformation.' The shooting, she said, left her in tears. 'My friends and family still work in those buildings,' she said. 'My mom works in one of those buildings.' In the aftermath, officials are assessing security and encouraging staff to report any new threats, including those based on misinformation about the CDC and its vaccine work. Anti-vaccine tension has been building Despite its prominence since the pandemic, anti-vaccine rhetoric leading to harassment and violence took root before then. In 2019, an anti-vaccine activist assaulted California state Sen. Richard Pan, streaming it live on Facebook, after Pan sponsored a bill to make it more difficult to get a vaccine exemption. Another threw blood at Pan and other lawmakers. The attacks came after Kennedy spoke outside the California Capitol, two large posters behind him featured Pan's image, with the word 'LIAR' stamped across his face in blood-red paint. Pan, a pediatrician, blames Kennedy for what happened then and now at the CDC. 'And you wonder why someone would go shoot up the CDC,' Pan said. 'Because he basically told them that those are the people you should hurt.' ___ Hollingsworth reported from Kansas City, Missouri, and Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.
