Woman, 25, dies after suffering from ketamine addiction following horrific tragedy
“She was deteriorating every time I saw her”
A young woman described as ‘funny’ and ‘selfless’ tragically died after suffering from a ketamine addiction following the death of her unborn child.
Beth Ashton, 25, had kept her drug problem secret from her family and, by the time it was discovered, she was already ‘so far gone’.
Beth, from Skelmersdale, became hooked on ketamine following a traumatic stillbirth in 2019, the ECHO reports.
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Her dad discovered her dead at home on the morning of November 9 2024 as her grieving mum Natalie Ashton said: “Her little body just gave out.”
Natalie added: “She suffered from preeclampsia. When we went to the hospital, her son had already passed, already gone, and she had to give birth to him.
“Because it was Easter there was nowhere for him to go, so we had him for five days in the cold cot. He deteriorated very quickly and that was very, very traumatic for everyone, especially for Beth.”
Natalie said she was ‘in awe’ when her daughter appeared to make a rapid recovery around six to eight months after the death of her son, who she named Roman. Little did she know Beth’s apparent good mood was a sign of something far more sinister.
She said: “Ketamine makes you feel good, it stops anxiety, it stops depression. But it’s killing your insides. You can be asymptomatic for a long time without realising.
“I thought she was coping brilliantly. I was in awe of how well she was dealing with such traumatic events. But looking back, that would make sense if she was using.”
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At first the signs of Beth’s ketamine addiction were easily missed, as she covered up her weight loss with baggy clothes. But she experienced her first pain flare-up in 2020 – and from there, her health rapidly deteriorated.
She attended multiple medical appointments with symptoms of severe cystitis, a urinary tract infection which causes frequent urination and a burning, stinging sensation while going to the toilet.
It was believed Beth was suffering from kidney damage due to the preeclampsia she was diagnosed with in 2019. But, she was actually showing signs of a little-known condition called “ketamine bladder syndrome”, an extremely painful condition caused by large, repeated doses of ketamine.
Natalie said: “Her bladder shrunk to the point it could only hold 30ml, the size of a shot glass. She had started passing jelly tissue in her urine, which was the lining of the bladder. She couldn’t eat by this point.
“And when you have these extreme pains, the only thing that can take away the pain is more ketamine. Beth was prescribed morphine and it did nothing. She would be lying on the floor, crippled, for hours.
“Because Beth was an adult, sometimes a few months would go by without us seeing each other. When I saw her she looked incredibly thin, with bones poking out. It was a shock for me and I thought she might have an eating disorder.”
Beth’s health troubles were only discovered in September last year, and she was hospitalised at Southport Hospital. Natalie said: “When I went to visit her, she looked like she’d just come out of a concentration camp. There was next to nothing on her. I just burst into tears.”
Beth, a pharmacy worker, was discharged from Southport Hospital three days later and referred to the Inspire Drug and Alcohol Service. She decided to temporarily move back in with her mum as she planned to beat her addiction.
Natalie added: “She was still using because that was the only thing that could take away the severe pain, and she was already so far gone by this point. She was journaling her plans to get clean. But the help just didn’t come in time.
“The pain was excruciating. She had to wee every 15 minutes and every 15 minutes she was in severe agony, crippled, screaming.”
Tragically, Beth died on November 9 last year, just two months after leaving hospital. Natalie said: “Her dad went to check on her in the morning and she was cold. He knew as soon as he saw her.
“My baby was in agony and her little body just gave out. The damage that had been done was too much. She weighed less than my little boy at this point. She was under five stone. It literally sucked the life out of her. She was deteriorating every time I saw her, until there was nothing left.”
Following her daughter’s death, the mum-of-three set up the West Lancs Ketamine Awareness and Support Facebook page for families affected by ketamine addiction.
She said: “I feel like I need to turn this pain into something positive, and if I can help just one family, just one person, Beth’s death isn’t in vain.
“This time last year I knew nothing about this drug, but since her passing I’m seeing so many more stories similar to Beth’s.
“Unknown to me, there’s been people in Skelmersdale who are going through it with their kids, who are 15 and 16, and it set a fire in my belly because kids that young don’t know the risks. Beth was 25 and she didn’t know the risks.
“Beth was my best friend. She was so funny, she was so selfless, she was always there for others, always had a sensible head and gave the best advice.
“She was on top of the world, all these plans, all these goals. She wanted to make a fresh start in Australia. Everything just happened so fast. That’s something a lot of parents won’t be prepared for – how quickly your child can deteriorate.
“I want people to know the real risks. People don’t know the risks because it doesn’t smell, you don’t get the munchies, you’ve got less chance of getting caught because there’s no odour. You can be in a ket-hole with your mates and because of how quickly it wears off, you can walk into the house a few hours later like nothing’s happened.
“You don’t realise it’s already causing damage. You don’t know until its too late. If you do take it, there’s a chance this will happen to your body.
“It does have an allure as a party drug, that’s why it’s so dangerous. And it’s so available, you can get it for pocket money prices.
“You only need a small amount to begin with. But no one can keep an addiction under control – that’s why it’s an addiction. Everything seems manageable until its not. That’s what happened to Beth. At the end she was spending £60 a day on it. I had no idea.”
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