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Eaten alive by heroin

Tranced

Tranced

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http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006320106,,00.html

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.
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Got to love (hate) the sun for sensationalism.

Can anyone give me a bit insight as to what is actually happening to her arms as it doesn't exactly give you much in the way of scientific facts here.

For example she obviously isn't being eaten alive by molecules.
 
Tranced said:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006320106,,00.html



Got to love (hate) the sun for sensationalism.

Can anyone give me a bit insight as to what is actually happening to her arms as it doesn't exactly give you much in the way of scientific facts here.

For example she obviously isn't being eaten alive by molecules.
Click to expand...

I'm 27 and you can't tell I've ever injected heroin or any drug except for a tiny little discoloration of skin you can only see if you know what you're looking for on my inner left elbow.

Not that heroin addiction didn't cause me a lot of problems, but it's not the heroin that has ruined this girl's arms, it's her lack of hygiene and most likely the re-use of dirty needles.

And given the quality of this article, I would speculate that there isn't a doctor out there who seriously believes this girl needs to have her arms amputated.
 
i can't believe that there was no recourse for someone whose arms were in danger of being amputated.
 
once gangrene sets in there really isn't much that can be done.
 
Yet another example of the drug war causing more harm than the drugs themselves.
 
^is it hard to get needles in ireland or something? because if she had ready access.. i agree, that this could very much be bad hygiene - which certainly can come with a junkie lifestyle even if needles are readily availble.
 
well, the fact that her arms are like that due to injecting so much isn't good at all. If she had access to something like a "safe injecting room", like they have in Switzerland, or here in Australia (Sydney), shit like this would be avoided. Further, if she had access to pharmaceutical Diamorphine and clean facilities (with education), this wouldn't be happening.
 
^^^Exactly.
Being an IV drug user does not mean that eventually your arms are going to be amputated. Obviously you are doing something wrong if you are in this woman's situation. Clean needles are not going to solve the problem. If drugs were decriminalized, drug users would be educated on how to safely administer their drugs in the name of harm reduction.
Also, it states in the article that the woman wants to enter rehab but there is no space available. If the money spent on drug law enforcement was spent on rehabilitation services, she would be able to get the help she needs.
 
Once your arms got to the bluish/purplish phase, wouldn't you try bumping or smoking the H?
 
Yet another example of the drug war causing more harm than the drugs themselves.
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I hate the Drug War as much as the next guy, but for some reason I can't really buy the notion that if there was no war on drugs, she would be completely in control and nothing bad would ever happen to her and she'd use her heroin properly.
 
I am a casual needle user, as in once every few months and this article made me feel sick in the stomach, is it possible for this to occur if u use safely, i have never had bruise or anything... ever this however worries me :(
 
This was actually an interview on sky news, i watched it and i really felt sorry for this woman. She seemed a nice person who didn't deserve all this shit. It showed pictures of her when she was younger and she was stunning. It really hit me that if you take heroin and if you can't use it occasionally it will completely screw you up. After watching this it has helped reaffirm what I believe. That heroin is a disgusting drug and i would never touch it.
 
It seems like she might have found somewhere else to inject before it got to that point. Although, I can see how the rest of her body might end up being the same way after a while if she had poor hygeine.
 
mitzi_carl said:
This was actually an interview on sky news, i watched it and i really felt sorry for this woman. She seemed a nice person who didn't deserve all this shit. It showed pictures of her when she was younger and she was stunning. It really hit me that if you take heroin and if you can't use it occasionally it will completely screw you up. After watching this it has helped reaffirm what I believe. That heroin is a disgusting drug and i would never touch it.
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Now, hang on a second. You can't entirely blame it on the Heroin, it's the uneducated way she uses it. I don't inject, but I know many people that do, for many years and they have never even come close to a bruise on their arm. It is possible to rotate the injection site appropriately.
Her arms would have been just as fucked up if it were MDMA, Cocaine, Meth, or anything else she were injecting.
 
Like others have said, its certainly not the heroin that caused that. I have a strong feeling that it was caused by her fucked up technique. I know from myself and many others that her situation can easily be avoided.

Its sad that they don't look into why that happened. They just assumed it was the heroin, and not her actions. Its basically saying everyone who bangs heroin will end up like that.

Shit like this pisses me off. I have no remorse for her, how stupid can you be? Switch your damn moa. Yeah its hard after you're iv'ing, but I haven't met many addicts that want to give up their damn arms for the needle.

And getting detox or rehab ain't that hard, especially in the UK.

She deserves what she got.
 
psychetool said:
Wow, that made me want to puke.
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lol really? thats pretty weak

go watch some execution videos and harden up



'eaten alive by heroin' LOL wut a joke

just some dirty addict shootin up dirty needles in dirty places using dirty dope and dirty utensils.. as I say, home is where the heroin is
 
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