A woman who was left fighting for her life after laughing gas left her paralyzed has spoken out to warn others to stay away from the seemingly innocent way to get high.
As Australia-based Tamika Dudley explained, she one day woke up to a paralyzed body after using laughing gas, also known as nitrous oxide, on a regular basis.
“I would always get offered to try nangs [the laughing gas] from friends at parties, they were doing it for fun and I always said no. I knew it was dangerous,” the 21-year-old wrote in her Facebook post.
“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.”
While everything appeared fine for a while, Tamika’s life turned around in an instant after she woke up and realized she was paralyzed.
“I tried to get up from my bed, but I couldn’t walk. I was completely paralyzed. The doctors told me that it could be permanent and that I may never walk again,” she added.
“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 realize blood is coming out. My nerves are damaged, and I’m not really sure if I’ll ever fully recover.”
As the young hairdresser added in her lengthy post, she always thought she was being cool by using laughing gas and sharing videos of it on social media.
“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,” she concluded.
“People think it’s harmless, that it’s just ‘laughing gas.’ But it could kill you, or leave you permanently paralyzed. It’s a 30-second high that could ruin your entire life.”
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