A young mother has revealed she almost died when her drink was allegedly spiked with a lethal dose of ketamine during a night out in Dublin last week.
Aimee, who recently moved from Newcastle to Northern Ireland, was out at a Dublin city centre bar as part of a hen party last Thursday, April 13, when the alleged incident took place.
Dublin Live reports that Aimee came close to dying twice after she was allegedly spiked with a dose of liquid ketamine, having returned to her table with a drink and realising "that's when I just started acting really funny."
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The 22-year-old told the outlet that her heart briefly stopped on two occasions, while she also suffered concussion as a result of seizures she experienced.
Aimee still struggles to recall many of the details of the night but her friends told her of her unusual behaviour before it became clear that something was seriously wrong.
The young mum told Dublin Live: "Apparently I just started crying, but I was acting like I wasn't crying and then I was laughing. I was acting really strange and my eyes were flicking a bit and they were like, 'Oh, what's going on here?'
"And they were going, Aimee, are you okay? And I was sobbing. But I was like, oh yeah, I'm fine, I'm totally fine… They said my whole body language was different. And my eyes were just blank. I was happy but I was sad.
"One of my friends took me to the toilet and she just thought, oh, maybe she's just a bit drunk. She was trying to talk to me and I just closed my eyes and then I completely collapsed on the floor. And then I sort of stood back up and she said it was like I was fighting what was happening to my body. And I just kept collapsing and then sort of coming back off."
Five minutes after she repeatedly collapsed, Aimee says that her heart stopped and when another friend came to check on her, she discovered the first friend screaming: "She's not breathing, she's not breathing!" The pair of friends couldn't find her pulse and then discovered that her eyes were unresponsive and one of the group performed CPR.
As panic set in among Aimee's group of friends, an ambulance was called and she was moved to the restaurant area of the venue, where it was more quiet than the bar.
"I was just seizing loads," Aimee explained. "Nobody knows how many times I had seizures. It was at 10 plus. That's how I got the concussion – because my head was smacking off the floor."
When emergency services arrived, Aimee says her heart stopped again but paramedics were able to resuscitate her and she was transported to hospital.
Aimee, who was perfectly healthy prior to the incident, has been advised by doctors that she should wear a 24-hour monitor due to concerns that her heart may never recover and the mum has revealed that she continues to suffer from headaches, nausea and heart palpitations.
Since discharging herself, Aimee found herself unable to walk up the stairs without stopping to catch her breath, and she struggles to carry her two-year-old.
Test results from hospital staff later showed that there was a lethal dose of ketamine in her system and Aimee is now calling for more awareness, particularly among young women, regarding how to keep their drinks safe and how to react if their drink is spiked.
She said: "It just shocks me so much that no one's learned to help and no one actually knows what to do."
Aimee still does not know who actually spiked her drink.
The Irish Mirror has contacted An Garda Siochana for comment.
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