British woman gives up booze after binge caused throat to explode

A student drank so much vodka she tore her windpipe vomiting and had to spend six days in hospital.

Megan Thomason, 21, was violently ill for 24 hours after downing triple shots costing just $5 each during a night on the town.

She was admitted to hospital where she was diagnosed with surgical emphysema, which caused her face and neck to swell so much she could have suffocated. She went out with friends in York on June 12 this year and headed straight to a bar where she had three vodka and Cokes.

After visiting two more bars, she spent the night with a friend but woke up and began being sick.

‘It was the worst experience of my whole life," said Miss Thomason. ‘People say they get hung over but I nearly died. Because they were triples, it was actually the equivalent of nine drinks and you don"t think of that at the time.

‘I was just in shock when I realised how serious it was."

She failed to respond to anti-nausea medication and it took doctors some time to realise Miss Thomason from Barlby, North Yorkshire, lacks the enzymes necessary to break down alcohol, causing her face to swell.

‘Basically, it felt like bubble wrap inside my cheeks and my mouth and chest," she said.

‘It was just one night out for a few drinks and it left me in hospital for a week, I could have died," she said.

The Hull University business student has now given up alcohol for good.