My Sophie died in pain and was fully incontinent after popular party drug destroyed her life – I begged her to stop
A heartbroken mother has described how her daughter’s life was “destroyed” by the popular party drug, which left her incontinent and in pain before to her untimely death at the age of 20.
In 2021, Sophie Russell, then eighteen, started using the Class-B drug ketamine while out with friends.
According to mother Tracy Marelli, Sophie started using drugs as a coping mechanism after her nanna, with whom she was very close, passed away.
At the height of her addiction, Sophie, who worked as an assistant at a school’s breakfast and evening club, became dependent on the recreational substance and took it daily.
According to the mother of two, her daughter started using ketamine alone in her bedroom every day after previously using it with her pals on nights out.
Tracy claimed she “begged” doctors and drug and alcohol agencies for assistance, but she felt “let down by the whole system” in the end.
Read more on ketamine
According to the 48-year-old, Sophie was completely incontinent and in “constant pain” when she passed away. Chronic ketamine usage can have negative effects on the bladder lining.
Civil servant Tracy acknowledged that ketamine was widely available and fairly simple to buy through applications on her phone, but she said Sophie wanted to stop using drugs but was physically unable to do so.
When Sophie was discovered unconscious at her father’s house on the morning of September 26, she tragically passed away. The cause of death has not yet been established.
The Lincolnshire Coroner’s Court affirmed that the inquest has not yet been held and that the case is still being investigated.
Matthew Perry, an actor from Friends, died of the drug in 2023.
Now that ketamine “destroyed” her daughter’s life, Tracy wants to caution other young people against using this substance.
Matthew Perry’s Ketamine Death: Arrests Made
“Sophie had just turned eighteen when her nanna passed away,” said Tracy, who lives in Lincoln, Lincolnshire. It all began because of her close relationship with her nanna.
When she turned 18, in mid-November 2021, she started going out with her pals and, regrettably, started using ketamine while having fun, like many young people do.
“I had no idea that she was using narcotics.
She was slurring as I continued ringing her up, and that’s when I realized something wasn’t right. She had trouble saying some things. This was occurring frequently.
“When I discovered powder in her room, I believe I learned about her drug use. “Why?” I asked her. and she claimed that it transports her to a better, happier place.
She was adored, well-cared for, and had a lot to look forward to in life, so I just don’t understand. I simply didn’t understand.
“I told her to stop taking it as soon as I learned what was going on. She was obviously unable to have that conversation with me.
She claimed that after going out and having a great time partying with her friends, she ended up sitting in her room and doing it alone.
“She went from having a laugh to taking [it every day] on her own in her bedroom.”
Constant agony
Despite having no underlying medical conditions, Sophie quickly started to experience extreme pain, substantial weight loss, and bladder problems—all signs of long-term drug use since the bladder’s lining becomes so damaged and scarred that it shrinks.
Tracy stated: “She would continually drink hot water bottles and complain to me about stomach pain. Whenever I took her to A&E, it would suddenly vanish.
When she died, she was a size six, having been a size 14 when she was eighteen. She was so much lighter.
Furthermore, it appeared that the doctors saw nothing wrong with this. She had to constantly use the restroom. She was completely incontinent and in pull-ups for well over a year.
Since it was the only thing that could ease her suffering, the more she took, the worse off she got.
She claimed that ketamine was present everywhere in the council estate where we reside. She mentioned that there were apps to obtain it, I recall. She might use her phone to place the order and then go pick it up.
“She told me one night that she knew she was going to die from this but didn’t want to.”
Tracy claimed that Sophie was put through a seven-day detox after she sought assistance from drug and alcohol services, but that the therapy “wasn’t enough.”
Tracy stated: “We immediately sought assistance for it. She felt physically incapable of stopping, even though she wanted to.
For a solid year and a half, she had drug support personnel, but nothing was occurring.
Before she passed away, I pleaded with the drug support worker that she should spend 30 days in treatment.
“She claimed that ketamine was present everywhere and that she was unable to avoid it. I believe that the entire system, including the physicians and drug support personnel, let her down.
“She was sent home with antibiotics for a kidney infection or UTI after visiting A&E the week before she passed away due to excruciating back pain.
“She required hospitalization. They didn’t inquire about it or make any connections after I informed them that she was addicted to ketamine.”
The devastating side effects of ketamine
Ketamine is a potent anesthetic that can have major negative effects.
Ketamine use can be lethal, especially when combined with other substances.
Risks to physical health
Short-term effects include elevated blood pressure and heart rate, as well as nausea.
Additionally, it may cause you to become disoriented, anxious, delusional, and detached from reality.
As it result in loss of feeling in your body, paralysis of the muscles and loss of touch with reality, taking ketamine can leave you vulnerable to hurting yourself or being hurt by others.
Recent drug use impairs your ability to perceive pain, so you run the risk of hurting yourself without realizing it.
Both your short-term and long-term memory may be harmed by party drugs.
Prolonged use can also result in serious bladder problems, causing an urgent, frequent and painful need to pee and blood stained urine.
Although stopping using ketamine can help, sometimes the damage can be so serious that the bladder needs surgical repair or even removal.
The urinary tract, from the kidneys down to the bladder, can also be affected and you may be left incontinent – meaning you can’t hold in your pee.
Abdominal pain, sometimes called K cramps , have been reported by people who have taken ketamine for a long time.
Finally, evidence of liver damage due to regular, heavy ketamine use is emerging.
Risks to mental health
The longer term effects of ketamine use can include flashbacks, memory loss and problems with concentration.
Regular use can cause depression and, occasionally, psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations.
Ketamine can also make existing mental health problems worse.
Medical grade ketamine is now being researched as a potential treatment for severe depression, but it is too early to know the results of this research.
Source:FRANK
The day before her death, Sophie went to her dad’s home nearby for a bath to help alleviate her pain but didn’t wake up the following morning.
The family are still awaiting the toxicology results to determine the cause of Sophie’s death.
Tracy said: “I screamed and fell to the floor. She was ruined by this substance. We loved each other big time but I was always worried about her.
“I get the young want to experiment but not with this drug. It should be a class-A drug. I would say to other people just don’t do it, it’s not worth the risk.
“There’s a lot of people in the same position as me. This world has gone crazy at the minute.
“There’s an awful lot of people on drugs now, people you don’t even think about. I don’t understand it.”
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust was contacted for comment.
Sophie’s friends recently took on the Yorkshire three-peak challenge to raise money for the ‘Taking Action on Addiction Campaign’.
Read More on The US Sun
You can donate to their campaignhere.
If you are experiencing problems with your use of ketamine, please seetalktofrank.com/drug/ketamine
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