Eaten alive by heroin
By HENRY AUSTIN
THESE shocking photos show the terrible toll that heroin addiction has taken on 27-year-old Rachael Keogh.
Now she could face the terrifying prospect of having both her ravaged arms AMPUTATED as her flesh is eaten away.
Rachael admits she is a walking warning of the dangers of drugs — yet she still cannot give up.
Telling of her plight, she said: “It’s an absolute nightmare. I’m terrified of losing my arms. The doctors are serious, they’ve warned me.
“They told me, ‘You’re going to lose your arms if you continue to use drugs, we’re going to have to amputate them’, but I just can’t stop.
“I don’t have the strength to do it on my own. I need help.”
Tragic Rachael started injecting heroin when she was only 15 — and more than a decade of abuse has destroyed the veins in her arms.
She said: “Because I’ve been using for so long I literally have none left.
“I’d be rooting around for veins and you can easily mistake a capillary for a vein.
“They are so small that they can’t handle the heroin. What happens is the heroin burns through them and I literally have necrosis [dead flesh] over my arms. It really upsets me.”
Although Rachael has attempted to kick the habit several times, she has always slipped back into addiction.
She said: “When I tried to get clean, I couldn’t do it.
“No one wants to be a drug addict or to do the things that you have to do in order to feed your habit.
“I’m not a scumbag. I’m a good person, my family instilled a lot of goodness in me. But when it comes to drugs, all my morals go out the window.
“The consequences of using heroin happened very quickly.
“When my family found out, they were devastated.”
Rachael, who lives in Dublin with her mother Linda, 42, went on: “I’m actually surprised I’m still sitting here.
“Without a doubt, I know I could die. If I didn’t have the family, I think I would be dead already.
“The state I’m in physically, your body can only take so much. Never in a million years did I think my arms would end up like this.
“Heroin has become all I know. I would give anything to get clean.”
Now she is desperately seeking help to give up heroin completely. But although she has tried to get into rehab there have been no places available.
Mum Linda told The Sun: “Her body is just giving in at this stage.
“She’s very, very sick. Drugs took over her mind and her body. I just don’t know what to do any more. She has no life. She exists but she’s just like a walking corpse. All she wants is another chance and everybody deserves that.”
Rachael will appear in court tomorrow accused of shoplifting.
it aint a pretty sight..
