A teenager says she felt “lucky to be alive” upon waking up in hospital after a night out having had her drink spiked with a date-rape drug.
Sophie Pearce, 19, woke up in Leicester Royal Infirmary on Sunday afternoon to find she had been hooked up to IV lines and a heart monitor. She had suffered three seizures, reports LeicestershireLive.
The teen, from Braunstone, had unwittingly consumed Ketamine, a Class B drug which is also a powerful anaesthetic used by vets.
The drug can prove fatal, especially if mixed with other drugs, including alcohol.
Because of effects such as confusion, delirium, muscle paralysis and loss of memory, it has also been used by sexual predators to target unsuspecting victims.
Pearce has since spoken out about her experience on Facebook, in a post outlining how the horror experience played out.
Pearce wrote of how she went to the nightclub on Saturday night and had a drink spiked, which resulted in her having “three seizures and being in a really bad way”.
"I had to be pumped with bags of fluids and linked up to heart monitors,” she said.
"Apparently, I was spiked with Ketamine and I’m honestly so lucky that the ambulance got to me in time."
She added: "To everyone that thinks that these things won’t happen to them, just like I did, it DEFINITELY DOES!! So please don't be fooled.”
She warned others not to leave their drinks, even for a split second, and to pay attention to people walking by.
Pearce said the night was meant to be her first proper night out with her partner since turning 18 during the pandemic.
Pearce said the pair arrived at the nightclub shortly before 11pm on Saturday night
The evening had started well, Pearce said, with the group dancing and socialising together.
"I regard myself as quite a cautious person and, because it was so busy and the wait to get served at the bar was about half-an-hour, we only had a few drinks.
Pearce said her memories were “a bit hazy”, but the group was keeping their drinks close by. She said the spiking had likely happened when she was hugging some friends she hadn’t seen since lockdown.
At some point in the evening, Pearce said she began to feel a bit "woozy".
"It was like that tipsy feeling you get after a few drinks," she recalls. "But I remember thinking I hadn't had enough to be drunk.
"I do remember, about halfway through the night, one of my drinks tasted a bit odd, I can't explain how. But I asked my girlfriend to have a sip and she thought it was okay."
Most of the details about what happened next came from Pearce’s partner, her mum Samantha Chant, paramedics and hospital staff, as Pearce said most of the night was a “complete blank”.
But upon her arrival home, she began having seizures, prompting her mum to call for an ambulance.
Paramedics assessed her and took her straight to A&E, where her girlfriend, who was also feeling ill, also had a check up.
"When I woke up on a hospital ward I was still pretty out of it,” Pearce said. “I didn't really know what was going on - I still feel rough to be honest.”
Mum, Samantha, said the family was “all very scared” for Pearce.
"I'm just so happy she is going to be okay, and glad that she somehow managed to call me and I was able to stay on the phone with her,” she said.
"I made sure she stayed outside the club with her friends and didn't wander off somewhere. It just goes to show you can't be too careful."
The incident has been reported to Leicestershire Police.
Sophie said it was scary to think that she doesn’t know who spiked her drink, or what their motives were. She hoped that by sharing her story, it would help to prevent the nasty experience from happening to anyone else.
"I wished we'd just stayed in and watched that film now - I certainly won't be going out for a while, and definitely won't be going to that club again!"
