Look what cocaine has done to my son, says angry mother
THE mother of a former Marine who almost died after taking cocaine has released a shocking picture of him in hospital as a stark warning to others.
Carl ayres suffered a stroke at the age of 28 five days after taking cocaine. He was in a coma for four days and was left unable to walk or talk.
at one point his life support machine was due to be switched off.
He survived, but his mother Julie ayres, 50, says she feels ‘broken’ over what happened to her son.
‘It’s absolutely heartbreaking,’ she said. ‘He was so active and full of life. He ran his own business. now I wipe his bum. some days I don’t want to get out of bed. But I always do. I always act cheerful around him. Then when I come out [from visiting him] I break down. I can’t stand to see how he is.’
Mr ayres, who owns a digger company, took cocaine at a local pub in Farnborough, Hampshire, on new Year’s Eve last year.
On January 4, he went for a five-mile run, which is believed to have triggered high blood pressure and caused a clot to develop. The next morning, he collapsed at a client’s house.
He was taken to Frimley Park Hospital, surrey, where he was transferred to intensive care and remained in a coma for four days.
When he finally ‘flickered his eyes’ open days later, his family was told he was likely to have locked-in syndrome, where the body and facial muscles are paralysed but the victim is conscious and able to move their eyes. They were considering turning off his life- support machine, but he began to make progress.
Tests found cocaine in his system and doctors told his family they believe it was the drug – and the substance with which it was ‘cut’ – that caused his stroke.
Mr ayres was left unable to speak or walk, and now uses a wheelchair. He is able to move his arms and feet, and is currently in a rehabilitation centre in southampton, where his mother visits him every day.
He is having physiotherapy and his family hope he will be able to return home soon. Mrs ayres said her son was determined to defy doctors and walk, although she feared he may need to adjust his expectations.
‘I live in a fantasy world that he will come bouncing through the door,’ she admitted. ‘That’s not going to happen. But he is so determined. He typed out, “If it takes me ten years, I will walk”. He has got a lot to accept.’
Mrs ayres, who previously worked in a special needs school, said that she and her husband Gary wanted others to realise how drastically cocaine had affected their son and his family.
she admitted she was ‘angry’ with her son – and would not hesitate to tell him.
‘If I can get one other person to realise how it’s affected my family and Carl then going public has to be worth it,’ she said.
‘People think it won’t happen to them. Carl is proof it can.
‘But I still see people in Farnborough taking cocaine. How close to home do they need it to happen?
‘I see them and think, “You selfish little sods. You could put your mother and father though what we’re going through”.’