Mum is left paralysed from the chest down after inhaling 15 balloons of ‘hippy crack’
A YOUNG mum has been left paralysed from the chest down after inhaling too much hippy crack.
Olivia Golding, 24, has no feeling from her chest down after contracting a disease from inhaling nitrous oxide through balloons.
The mum would consume up to 15 balloons a weekend while her three-year-old son Parker visited his dad.
But she was left horrified last Friday when she woke up and couldn't move - and had to ask Parker to call for help.
Olivia now needs to learn how to walk and use her hands again after the nitrous oxide - also known as laughing gas - caused Lichtheim's disease, which causes degeneration of the spinal cord.
The car salesman, from Bristol, told Mail Online: "About a month before I was doing a balloon and I got pins and needles in my neck and back. I started feeling numb in my body.
"But I never dreamt it was the balloons so I just carried on doing them.
"One day I was walking in the park with my son and taking him swimming, the next day I couldn't move."
Olivia was rushed to hospital where tests revealed her spinal cord was damaged because of the NOS.
Lichtheim's disease is believed to start when nitrous oxide starves the body of vitamin B12 - damaging the part of the body that protects nerve fibres in the spinal cord that control movement and sensation.
Olivia is now receiving vitamin B12 injections and is hoping she will recover completely.
She has managed to take 12 steps with the help of physiotherapists but will need to spend a long time in hospital for rehabilitation.
The mum said: "I cannot even put Parker's shoes on for him and it's the things like that [which] break my heart.
"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."
It is illegal to sell or import the drug for human consumption but it can still be used for medical procedures and in catering aerosol cans and engines.
