A 27-year-old man claims laughing gas “ruined his life” after his extreme use of the drug left him permanently disabled, incontinent and dependent on 30 pills a day to manage his pain.
Connor Wilton was hospitalized in 2022 when his father found him “collapsed” on the floor of his home.
The former mental health rehabilitation worker had inhaled a balloon filled with nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, minutes before his father discovered him.
At the time, Mr Wilton, from Shirebrook, Derbyshire, was snorting around 480 puffs of the illegal drug every weekend.
Doctors later discovered that he had suffered severe nerve damage due to excessive use of laughing gas which had deprived his body of oxygen and vitamin B12, eventually leaving him paralyzed.
Connor Wilton was hospitalised when his father, Jamie Wilton, 53, found him “collapsed” on the ground in November 2022 after using nitrous oxide.
The 27-year-old, from Shirebrook, Derbyshire, suffered severe nerve damage that left him paralysed after the drug deprived his body of oxygen and B12 vitamins.
After spending three months bedridden in hospital and four months in a neurological rehabilitation unit, Mr Wilton “will never be able to stand up straight” and is forced to use crutches and a wheelchair while taking around 30 pills a day.
Even after spending three months bedridden in hospital and four months in a rehabilitation unit, Mr Wilton “will never be able to stand upright” and is forced to use crutches and a wheelchair while taking around 30 pills a day to manage the pain.
He says he started using laughing gas at the age of 18 during a boy’s holiday, but began “abusing” the substance in October 2022, about a year before it was made illegal.
Following his ordeal, Mr Wilton took to Facebook to warn others about the dangers of using laughing gas.
In the caption, the former laughing gas user said: “Kids, don’t take balloons. I never thought this could or would happen” and how “it has ruined (his) life.”
She said she had so little muscle control that her hands began to bend like “dinosaur hands” and she suffered from incontinence, requiring her to wear pads for five months.
The controlled class C drug, also known as NOS or hippy crack, is the second most widely used drug among 16 to 24 year olds in England after cannabis.
Inhalation of the gas causes brief feelings of dizziness, fits of laughter and hallucinations.
Heavy and regular abuse carries significant health risks, including anemia and, in more severe cases, nerve damage or paralysis.
Mr Wilton said: “It’s changed my life so much. I never thought it would happen. You look at it and think, ‘It will never happen to me.'”
‘I abused it for years. I did it at social gatherings on the weekends and when I went to Kavos and things like that.
‘During October 2022, I was crashing every weekend. I started throwing up all the time. To be honest, I didn’t think it had anything to do with nitrous oxide. I was pretty naive.
‘Then I started to feel tingling in my feet. One day, my father found me collapsed on the floor from having ingested laughing gas.
“I couldn’t feel my legs properly. I complained that I couldn’t urinate. It was because the nerves and muscles in my lower half had failed.”
He was rushed to hospital, where doctors discovered he had a vitamin B12 deficiency and spinal cord degeneration as a result of nitrous oxide use.
Unable to stand for almost two months and without control of his bowels, Mr Wilton required round-the-clock bed care.
He said: “It was absolutely horrible. I couldn’t control my muscles.
“My hands were starting to curl up like a little dinosaur’s. I couldn’t lift the phone properly. My intestines were failing.
‘I had a catheter for five months. I had to wear a diaper for five months and was in bed 24/7.
“I was in the air for two whole months. I couldn’t feel or move my legs. Little by little, my hands started to get better.
“Every day I was lifted out of bed and sat in a chair. I was bedridden for ten weeks. I didn’t get up until the week before Christmas, with the help of two workers.”
Although doctors knew the damage was a result of the balloons, they did not know the full extent of his condition.
The former mental health rehabilitation worker, who began using laughing gas at 18 on boys’ holidays and social events, began “abusing” the substance, which became illegal in November 2023.
He had so little muscle control that his hands began to curl like “dinosaur hands” and he suffered from incontinence, requiring him to wear a diaper for five months.
Unable to stand for almost two months and without control of his bowels, Mr Wilton required round-the-clock bed care.
He went through the lengthy process of a nerve state study, which measures the speed at which impulses travel along a nerve, to discover to what extent sensation is lost.
He revealed that nitrous oxide destroyed all vitamin B12 (necessary for the body to produce DNA and keep blood and nerve cells healthy) and deprived his body of oxygen.
She underwent vitamin B12 injections every other day for three months and now receives them once every three months.
After being moved to a neurological rehabilitation unit in Nottingham in January 2023, Mr Wilton was eventually discharged but now relies on crutches and a wheelchair.
He said: ‘To this day I am between a wheelchair and crutches.
“The amount of nerves I’ve damaged, some are too damaged and will never heal. I’ll never be able to stand up straight. My feet are drooping 35 degrees.
“I have a lot of spasms in my legs. I get a lot of pain first thing in the morning. My leg muscles lock up. I scream in pain.
‘My bowels still don’t work. I don’t even know if I’m going to shit myself in public.
“I’m pretty independent now, but I’m always on crutches. I have a converted car that I drive with my hands.”
After being moved to a neurological rehabilitation unit in Nottingham in January 2023, Mr Wilton was eventually discharged but now relies on crutches and a wheelchair.
The 27-year-old says he is now quite independent, but uses crutches all the time and has a converted car.
He said: “I would never do it again. Absolutely not. I hate it. It’s not worth it to be like that.”
‘It’s changed my life so much. I love dancing and I’ll never be able to do that again. I love festivals but last week I went to one just for fun and it’s quite exhausting.
‘I tell people to stop doing it (nitrous oxide). It’s not worth the risk. I’m probably the worst person I’ve ever met when it comes to this.
‘It’s something that young people turn to because they find it fun. They think it’s not as serious as other drugs.
“They are very accessible. People sell them to children because they think they are not dangerous, that they are just balloons. That is why they were not illegal until recently.”