Laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, is frequently abused as a recreational drug.
It’s easy to get ahold of.
So easy, that some people even think it’s legal.
The small canisters are inhaled for a twenty second high.
That twenty second high has given Olivia Golding, a 24-year-old mom, an injury that has left her unable to walk for the rest of her life.
Olivia urged the viewers of Caters News to think about their families before taking the drug.
“I know I’ve got to live with the consequences of not being able to walk, but it’s not just me this has happened to, it’s my family too.
It’ll ruin your life and your family’s lives and it’s a very selfish move.”
The drug deprives your body of oxygen.
The young mom confessed she had taken the drug several times over the course of a year while she was hanging out with her friends.
Then, one day in early August, she woke up and couldn’t feel her legs.
Doctors discovered that taking the nitrous oxide had injured the top of her spinal cord.
She now has a condition called subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord, also known as Lichtheim disease. The illness has impaired her mobility.
Olivia Golding is home from the hospital and relying on her family to help her adapt to her new condition.
The 24-year-old now uses a wheelchair, will always have regular doctor appointments to check on her illness, and is on a host of medications to help her spinal nerves recover.
Doctors aren’t sure how much of her mobility she will ever recover.
To make matters more stressful, people have been sending the young mom death threats online.
Since opening up about what happened to her to try to convince others not to make the same mistakes, many have decided that she’s not fit to be a mom.
Olivia, meanwhile, is focused on telling her story and fighting to recover so she can be there for her 3-year-old son.
About her son, she said: “He’s my determination to get up; otherwise I would stay in bed all day.”
