A 15-year-old girl was taken to hospital after collapsing and having a seizure, which she believes was caused by smoking "spiked" cannabis bought outside Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet.
Sophy Smolnicka, a year 11 student, had gone to a forest in Ellesmere Port to smoke with friends. She said she had purchased the class B drug from a boy she met at Cheshire Oaks. Within a minute of smoking the cannabis, she collapsed to the floor and began having a seizure.
Emergency response and hospital treatment
One of her friends called 999 while Sophy was "foaming at the mouth" and "throwing up blood". She was then taken by ambulance to the Countess of Chester Hospital in Cheshire. Her mother, Ivana Kodeschova, rushed to the hospital after receiving a call, where she found Sophy hooked up to heart monitors and undergoing a series of tests.
The 50-year-old shop worker, from Ellesmere Port, said she was crying when she first saw her daughter connected to the monitors. Sophy was given five blankets because her temperature had dropped.
Mother's warning to other parents
Ivana is urging parents to look out for "warning signs" in their children, saying the outcome could have been very different if medical help had not arrived in time. She said: "[When I got the call] I went straight to the hospital. I was starting to panic and cry. When I got to the hospital, I saw my daughter being monitored for her heart. She was very cold and she was given five blankets as her temperature had dropped. There are no perfect parents who can say, 'This doesn't concern us. This will never happen to us'. And if something like this does happen, it does not mean that you have failed as a parent."
She added: "When help arrives quickly and in time, as it did in our case, all you can do is thank God, even through the tears, that you are still able to hold your child in your arms and feel them breathing. Please pay attention to your child's behaviour, the way they communicate, their movements and gestures. Never be indifferent to where your child is or who they are with."
Teen's account and resolve
Sophy said she was told it was just cannabis, but she believes she was "spiked" due to the severity of her reaction. She said: "I just presumed it was just weed. One minute into smoking it I started walking into bushes and then collapsed on the floor. I was panicking and my heart was beating really fast and I was sweating."
She added: "I've never had a seizure before so it was quite scary to experience for the first time. When I collapsed on the floor, I remember shaking and I couldn't speak. I had foam coming out of my mouth as I could feel it dripping down on me. I know if I had shut my eyes, I would have been dead. I was throwing up bits of blood. I was so panicked about staying alive."
Ivana and Sophy are now speaking about what happened to prevent other young people from going through the same experience. Sophy said she will never smoke cannabis again, adding: "This has 100 per cent put me off smoking weed again. I've shared the post I made online with all my mates and I've put it all over my social media."
She concluded: "I know what I've done and that's my own fault and I'm not asking for any sympathy but, in time, I don't want this happening to anyone else. The ambulance said that if they didn't get there in the next 10 minutes, I would have been dead in the middle of the forest."
