Balloons blow for mother
BONUS NO WINNERS OF THE TOP PRIZE
The society raising money through The Health Lottery this month ending August 31, is South East Health, tackling health inequalities in South East England.
DUE TO PRESS START TIMES AT OUR NEW PRESSES WE CAN ONLY CARRY THE NATIONAL LOTTERY RESULTS IN OUR LATER EDITIONS Read all about it – online as well as in your favourite paper. Our fantastic website is full of the best stories, pictures and videos seven days a week. Get it on your phone, tablet or computer and even download the paper to your tablet or laptop. Plus we’d love to hear from you on social media. A YOUNG mum was left paralysed after taking “hippy crack”.
Olivia Golding, 24, inhaled around 15 balloons, containing nitrous oxide (NOS), every weekend when her three-year-old son Parker was with his dad.
But last Friday she woke up unable to move and has spent a week in hospital. Doctors told her that the gas had caused Lichtheim’s disease which starts when NOS starves the body of the vitamin B12 before damaging the spinal cord.
Olivia, a car saleswoman from Bristol, said: “One day I was walking in the park with my son and taking him swimming; the next day I couldn’t move.
“My son wants me to play with him and I can’t do that. I can’t feel my legs, my whole body is twitching.
“I cannot take myself to the toilet, feed myself or have a drink.”
In the past week, Olivia has managed 12 steps with help from physiotherapists.
The condition is treated with vitamin B12 injections and most people make a full recovery within weeks.