Woman became paralyzed after drinking laughing gas for days

A young woman can no longer walk, eat or wash after years of regularly swallowing laughing gas.

Kerry Donaldson, 25, started inhaling nitrous oxide in 2017, when she and her friends would casually consider it a “social thing” over the weekend.

“Everyone did it,” she said.

But Kerry’s use of the drug — often referred to as NOS or balloons — soon became more frequent, eventually reaching the point where she often binge-eats for days.

She said, ‘I used them for three days and then I would vomit for the next few days.

“I couldn’t drink water or eat anything. I would be sick and sleep about 12 hours, I couldn’t do much.

“Then I would wake up and do it all over again. It would be like a cycle.”

Kerry, from Newham, Greater London, eventually began to lose feeling in her hands and legs and was taken to hospital several times.

She said: ‘My B12 levels were low, so I got B12 injections. At that point I didn’t care. I knew it was harmful to me, but I didn’t care.’

Kerry only decided to retire in 2020 when she lost feeling in her left leg.

But the damage was already done and she walked with a crutch for about a year and a half and received vitamin B12 injections.

Kerry also had lower back pain that she “knew was from the balloons,” but she kept ignoring it.

In January of this year, the pain was so bad she couldn’t even take a few steps.

She went to the hospital where doctors found a herniated disc and nerve damage, which left her unable to walk.

“Of course this was because of the balloons. I had left it for so long and hadn’t had it treated, so the damage had gotten worse,” she said.

Kerry spent five weeks in the hospital before being discharged in March.

She now needs 24-hour care from her father and she cannot do much on her own.

Kerry said, ‘My father has to take me to the shower and the bath has been modified to make it easier for me to get in and out.

“All my meals are prepared for me by my father. He is my caretaker, I am so thankful for him, he changed his life to take care of me.’

Kerry has spoken out about her experience of “turning it into something positive” and preventing others from going through the same thing.

She said, ‘I’m trying to make the best of the situation. Of course I regret using nitrous oxide, I wish I had been better trained.

“I wish I knew then what I know now, because then I probably wouldn’t have been able to use it.

‘I want to go to schools and universities to talk to young people and train them. I also want to go to universities because I know that balloons are used a lot there.

“I know there’s going to be a lot of good in speaking out, and that’s what’s important to me.”