A STUDENT has told of how she was admitted to hospital with a life-threatening condition after drinking heavily on a night out in York.

Megan Thomason, 21, has warned others against cheap drinks promotions after she said she drank more than she had intended due to deals which meant triple shots of spirits cost less than singles.

Following her night out she became violently ill and after 24 hours was admitted to hospital, where she learned she had torn her windpipe. The condition, called surgical emphysema, caused Megan’s face to swell and could have caused her to suffocate, she said.

Megan said: “I was drinking the same as my friends. Being drunk is classed as normal and I gave in to peer pressure.

“I want to warn people about the dangers of binge-drinking. It was the worst experience of my whole life. People say they get hung over but I nearly died.

“You don’t realise what alcohol is doing to your liver. What caused me to throw up was that the alcohol was burning my insides.”

Megan faced an operation on her windpipe, but it began to heal by itself during the week she spent in York Hospital. The Hull University student, who has moved from York to Barlby, said while she took responsibility for how much she had drunk, she felt drinks deals encouraged people looking to save money to drink more.

She said she had been admitted to hospital twice before following nights out, but said the most recent incident in June was so serious she had now stopped drinking completely and suffered nightmares about what happened.

Professor Paul Wallace, chief medical adviser to alcohol education charity Drinkaware, says: “The main danger of drinking alcoholic drinks is the alcohol itself and its effects on your brain and your body. It doesn’t much matter whether you drink it in wine, beer, spirits or anything else – the alcohol is what causes the effects on your brain and your body. And the more you have, the more dangerous it becomes.

“If you become intoxicated because of the effect of alcohol on your brain, you’re more likely to say or do something you regret, to get into trouble, to have an accident or even to end up in hospital.

“It’s worth knowing what the unit guidelines are in relation to your favourite drinks as this makes it easier to keep track of how much you’ve had. The guidelines for women are two to three units a day, equivalent to a medium 175ml glass of 13 per cent wine.”

Earlier this month The Press reported that hundreds of young people – including dozens of children – had been admitted to York Hospital for serious alcohol-related incidents. Figures showed over the last year 33 children and a total of 152 young people under 24 were admitted with problems linked to drinking.