 A photograph of Leah Betts in a coma, used in an anti-drug campaign. Leah Betts (November 1977 - November 16 1995) was a schoolgirl from Latchingdon in Essex, United Kingdom. She is notable for the extensive media coverage that followed her death several days after her 18th birthday, during which she took an Ecstasy tablet, then collapsed four hours later into a coma, from which she did not recover.
The press were quick to report that Leah's death was an obvious example of the dangers of illegal drugs in general, and ecstasy in particular. Leah was from a quite ordinary family, with her father a policeman and her mother a nurse. That she was so ordinary likely contributed to the sense of shock around the country.
Not long afterwards, a major advertising campaign used (with permission of the family) the image of Leah Betts on her deathbed, and the caption Sorted: Just one ecstasy tablet killed Leah Betts.
Far less widely reported (though it was reported in The Times) was the fact that the official inquest into her death found that her cause of death was the enormous quantity of water she had consumed (about 7 litres in less than 90 minutes), apparently as a result of harm reduction advice to ravers to drink water to avoid dehydration. This large quantity of water resulted in water intoxication and hyponatremia (dilution of the blood, showing mainly in a low sodium level) and serious swelling of the brain (cerebral edema).
See also
|
