A woman was left paralysed and fearing for her life after her vape was ‘spiked’ on a night out.
Emma Sugrue-Lawrence, 43, was enjoying a night out in Wolverhampton’s Grain Store nightclub one Saturday night, when she was approached by a man asking to buy her a drink.
Mum-of-three Emma declined but when he appeared again in the smoking area she assumed he was with the group of friends she was standing with.
She handed him her vape to try, which he then took to the toilet and re-emerged with minutes later.
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After she took it back and had a couple of puffs, Emma said within ten minutes she was in a state of paralysis.
A harrowing picture shows Emma passed out on a stretcher on her way to the city's New Cross Hospital after a friend called paramedics for help.
The support worker remains traumatised by the assault she fears could’ve made her a date-rape victim.
The married mum, from Telford, Shropshire, said: “I’m OK now but it took a while before it sunk in and hit what had happened.
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“It took a few days to get over how lucky I was.
“It played on my mind, the what ifs like what could’ve happened if my friend wasn’t there.
“It could’ve been a lot worse.
“You hear about these date rapes - I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, I couldn't. I couldn't open my eyes, but I was aware of everything that was going on.”
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She added that it was around “two days” before feeling came back into her legs.
“It was playing on my mind what these poor girls actually go through who actually do get date raped,” she said. “They can't scream, they can't stop it.”
When friends tried to alert police outside the club about Emma’s situation, they were initially dismissive, believing Emma was just drunk.
She then discharged herself from hospital after spending hours on her own.
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“At eight in the morning, my friend came in and I said ‘please take me home’ so I went and discharged myself and they said I should wait to get tested and see the doctor but I said I’d been waiting all night and they hadn’t done anything,” Emma said.
“That was probably a big mistake because there is no trace of what was and wasn’t there.”
As a support worker for people with drug and addiction issues, Emma says she is very careful on nights out.
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Judging from the way her body shut down, she believes she was spiked with mamba spray.
“You only need a tiny amount of that and you could just spray it around the base of the vape,” Emma explained.
“I was sat in the hospital thinking ‘how the hell did that happen to me?’, I didn’t have a drink of anyone, only four shots I watched them pour.
“But then I worked out it must’ve been my vape.
“You put your vape inside your mouth and there’s only a thin layer of skin on your lip and it goes straight into your bloodstream.
“I think he rubbed it on when he was in the toilet or just sprayed it on it.
“To get mamba into prisons they spray it on paper then smoke the paper.”
Emma is “glad” her friend Vicky Davies, 44, took a photo of her being stretchered into the ambulance.
She added: “It's quite horrendous picture and it speaks volume just looking at it.
“I burst into tears and it made me quite emotional, but I need to get that out there so people know.
“I’m 43 and it happened to me, so I’m worried about these younger girls going out.
“If they target you they are going to get you any way they can.
“You just wouldn’t think it would happen that way because everyone says watch your drink.”
Featured Image Credit: SWNS