Man, 27, left paralyzed after inhaling 480 balloons of laughing gas every week for a month

A 27-year-old man claims laughing gas ‘ruined his life’ after his extreme use of the drug left him permanently disabled, incontinent and reliant 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, also known as laughing gas, in the minutes before his father discovered him.

At the time, Mr Wilton, from Shirebrook, Derbyshire, was inhaling around 480 balloons of the illegal drug every weekend.

Doctors later discovered that he had suffered severe nerve damage from excessive use of nitrous oxide that had deprived his body of oxygen and vitamin B12, eventually leaving him paralyzed.

Connor Wilton was hospitalized after his father, Jamie Wilton, 53, found him “collapsed” on the floor in November 2022 after using laughing gas

The 27-year-old from Shirebrook, Derbyshire, suffered severe nerve damage that left him paralysed after the drug deprived his body of oxygen and vitamin B12

After spending three months bedridden in hospital and four months in a neurorehabilitation unit, Mr Wilton will ‘never be able to stand up again’ and is forced to use crutches and a wheelchair, while taking around 30 tablets a day

Even after being bedridden in hospital for three months and spending four months in a rehabilitation unit, Mr Wilton will ‘never be able to stand up straight’ and has to use crutches and a wheelchair, while taking about 30 tablets a day to manage the pain.

He first started using laughing gas when he was 18, on a lads’ holiday, he says. But he began “abusing” the substance in October 2022 — about a year before it was made illegal.

After his ordeal, Wilton warned others on Facebook about the dangers of laughing gas.

In the caption, the former laughing gas user said, “Keep your hands off balloons kids. Never thought this could or would happen” and how “it’s ruined [his] to live’.

He explained that he had so little control over his muscles that his hands began to bend like “dinosaur hands” and he became incontinent. He had to wear incontinence pads for five months.

The controlled drug Class C, also known as NOS or hippie crack, is the most commonly used drug among 16- to 24-year-olds in England after cannabis.

When you inhale the gas, you experience short-term feelings of dizziness, giggling and hallucinations.

Severe, regular abuse carries significant health risks, including anemia and in more severe cases, nerve damage or paralysis.

Mr Wilton said: ‘It has changed my life so much. I never believed it would happen. You see it and think “it will never happen to me”.

‘I abused it for years. I did it socially on the weekends and when I went to Kavos and things like that.

‘In October 2022, I was out partying every weekend. I started getting sick all the time. I honestly didn’t think it was from the laughing gas. I was pretty naive.

‘Then I started having tingling feet. One day my father found me collapsed on the floor from the laughing gas.

‘I couldn’t feel my legs properly. I complained that I couldn’t urinate. That’s because my nerves and muscles in my lower body were giving out.’

He was rushed to hospital, where doctors discovered he had a vitamin B12 deficiency and that his spinal cord had degenerated as a result of the nitrous oxide use.

Mr Wilton was unable to stand for almost two months and had no control over his bowels, requiring 24-hour care.

He said: ‘It was absolutely horrible. I had no control over my muscles.

‘My hands started to bend like little dinosaur hands. I couldn’t answer my phone properly. My bowels failed.

‘I had a catheter for five months, I had to wear a diaper for five months and I was in bed 24/7.

‘I lifted for two whole months. I couldn’t feel or move my legs. My hands slowly started to get better.

“I was lifted out of bed into a chair every day. I was bedridden for ten weeks. I was only able to get up the week before Christmas with the help of two workers.”

Although doctors knew the damage was caused by the balloons, they did not know how serious his condition was.

The former mental health rehabilitation worker began using laughing gas at the age of 18 on boys’ holidays and at social events, and has since gone on to ‘abuse’ the substance, which became illegal in November 2023.

He had so little muscle control that his hands began to bend like ‘dinosaur hands’ and he became incontinent, requiring him to wear a diaper for five months

Unable to stand for almost two months and with no control over his bowels, Mr Wilton required 24-hour care

He underwent a lengthy study of nerve disorders, which measures the speed at which impulses travel through a nerve to determine the extent of sensory loss.

It turned out that the nitrous oxide destroyed all the B12, which the body needs to produce DNA and maintain healthy blood and nerve cells, and deprived his body of oxygen.

For three months he received injections of vitamin B12 every two days, and now only once every three months.

After being transferred to a neurorehabilitation 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’m still between a wheelchair and crutches.

“The amount of nerve damage I have, some of it is too far gone and will never recover. I will never be able to stand up straight again. I have 35 degree drop feet.

‘My legs cramp up a lot. I have a lot of pain early in the morning. The muscles in my leg lock up. I scream in pain.

‘My bowels still aren’t working. I don’t even know if I’m going to go down on myself in public.

‘I am now fairly independent, but I walk on crutches all the time. I have a modified car, which I drive with my hands.’

After being transferred to a neurorehabilitation unit in Nottingham in January 2023, Mr Wilton was eventually discharged but is now reliant on crutches and a wheelchair

The 27-year-old says he is now quite independent, but he walks on crutches all the time and has a modified car

He said, ‘I would never do it again. Absolutely not. I hate it. It’s not worth being like that.’

‘It’s changed my life so much. I love dancing and I can never dance again. I love festivals but I went last week just for fun and it’s quite tiring.

I tell people to stop doing it [nitrous oxide]. It’s not worth the risk. I’m probably the worst person I’ve ever seen do this.

‘That’s the go-to thing for young people because they think it’s funny. They think it’s not as serious as other drugs.

“They are widely available. People sell them to children because they think they are not dangerous, it is just a balloon. That is why it was not illegal until recently.”