A forklift driver who became an instant millionaire after buying a winning scratchcard was rushed to hospital after spending three months partying.
Adam Lopez, aged 39, from Mattishall, near Norwich, saw his bank balance rocket from £12.40 to £1,000,012.40 after winning the top prize on a scratchcard purchased from a corner shop in Hellesdon, in July.
But after quitting his job, he said his life became an “absolute rollercoaster” with three months of partying and a loss of all structure in his life.
His celebrations came to an end when he was taken by ambulance to hospital with a bilateral pulmonary embolism on 10 September.
“I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t breathe. I rang the ambulance, I got wheeled into the ambulance from my house and the biggest life-changing thing I had was laying in the back of that ambulance and hearing the sirens,” he told the BBC.
Mr Lopez said he had a blood clot in his leg which spread to his lungs, meaning he spent eight days at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Describing his hospital visit as a “wake-up call”, Mr Lopez said he came to the realisation that his health mattered more than his lottery winnings.
“It just makes you look at both sides of life because it doesn't matter if you have a million, 100 million, a billion, a trillion – when you’re in the back of the ambulance, none of it matters,” he said.
A pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel in your lungs, the NHS explains.
The life-threatening condition can cause difficulty breathing, chest pain and in some cases, people cough up blood.
Blood clots affect tens of thousands of people each year in the UK, and can develop as a consequence of heart failure, or as a result of sitting or lying still for a long period, according to the British Heart Foundation.
Mr Lopez said he will be putting his partying aside while he focuses on his health and recovery for the next six to nine months, as he praised the hospital staff for their work.
