Mother’s shocking picture of ecstasy son’s final hours
HOOKED up to a life support machine, Reece Murphy lies on a hospital bed with a bloodied face in the final hours before he died after taking ecstasy.
The 16-year-old’s grieving mother Sarah Lush released the shocking photograph in a bid to deter other youngsters from experimenting with the Class A drug.
Miss Lush, 38, a restaurant worker, said: ‘A majority of you may think drugs are all good and fun and games but at the end of the day they’re not, because it can end someone’s life, just like poor Reece’s.
‘Reece had done it a few times before and was okay, so he thought he was safe, but you just don’t know. Please don’t take drugs, they ruin lives and families.’
Reece was found seriously ill at a house in Taunton, Somerset, in the early hours of Saturday and died in the town’s Musgrove Park Hospital 48 hours later when his life support was switched off.
Police said the teenager, who had been hoping to start a college course in demolition, and a 30-year-old man who was also hospitalised were both believed to have taken MDMA, the chemical name for ecstasy. Miss Lush, who lived with her son in Dorchester, Dorset, said: ‘He took a tablet with friends. There was something in it that had a bad reaction – his body didn’t like it. It shut down his organs, one by one.’
She praised staff at Musgrove Park, who fought for Reece until his death. ‘He had two nurses working on him 24 hours a day. They never left his side or stopped fighting for him for a second,’ she said.
‘In spite of that, Reece just kept getting worse and in the end there was nothing more they could do.’
An Avon and Somerset police spokesman said officers were investigating. Ecstasy has been blamed for more than 200 deaths in Britain since 1996. A Facebook page called ‘Raising Awareness for Reece’ has been set up to pay tribute to the teenager and urge young people to stay away from drugs.
Miss Lush said her son’s death had left her with an ‘empty’ heart. ‘He was the most funny, kind, caring kid and was loved by so many,’ she said. ‘The support I have had has been so overwhelming.
‘He had his whole life ahead of him and he had so many memories to make.
‘I want to wake up and it’s all a dream. I can’t imagine my life without him in it.’