'Beautiful' woman, 22, died after five-year ketamine addiction made her body shut down

A mother has recounted the harrowing ordeal she endured attempting to rescue her 22-year-old daughter from ketamine addiction before she passed away in tremendous suffering. Isabelle Sapherson-Moralee, known as Izzy, died after her body gave out following five years of taking the class B drug. Her heartbroken mother, Ann Moralee, spent 18 months fighting to secure help for Izzy and repeatedly warned health professionals that her daughter's life was at risk. Izzy, who suffered from chronic pain and a severely damaged bladder as a result of her addiction, "went home to die" after discharging herself from hospital just two days before her death. While caring for her daughter at home, Ms Moralee desperately pleaded with Izzy to allow her to call an ambulance, reports the Mirror . She told her daughter's inquest: "I kept asking her, please let me phone an ambulance but she said 'no more hospitals mum, I can't do it anymore'." "She knew she was dying that last 48 hours. She died 36 hours after she got home. She was freezing cold, shallow breathing. I checked on her and she was cold." The grieving mother recalled that while performing CPR and speaking to a 999 operator, she stated: "I said she's going to die, I told everybody she was going to die and now here we are and she's dead." Ms Moralee, a flight attendant and former nurse, continued: "I have saved a lot of lives in my career, both as a nurse and flight attendant, but ultimately I couldn't save my daughter." There has been a concerning surge in ketamine misuse amongst young people in the UK over recent years. Statistics reveal that since 2015 ketamine consumption has risen by 251.85 per cent, representing the most significant increase in the usage of any single drug during that timeframe. Ketamine, also referred to as 'K' and 'Special K', has been connected to numerous student fatalities over recent years. Izzy, who was employed as an estate agent, began using the drug frequently during the Covid lockdowns in 2020 when she relocated to live with her boyfriend. Ms Moralee, from Wimborne, Dorset, stated she remained unaware her daughter had been consuming it until late 2023 when it had become "out of control and she couldn't hide it anymore". The drug consumption had harmed Izzy's bladder and resulted in her becoming incontinent approximately a year prior to her death. Her mother explained it was so severe she spent £500 monthly on incontinence pads and Izzy had to cease working roughly six months before her death. Ms Moralee informed the inquest she believed health officials could have done more to assist her daughter and had "missed opportunities." Following a distressing encounter with a urologist at Salisbury District Hospital who Ms Moralee described as "vile" to Izzy, she stated her daughter no longer had confidence in doctors. Izzy was admitted to hospital in March but even then and despite her deteriorating health she was still capable of obtaining and consuming ketamine. Ms Moralee said: "In her last hospital stay she was caught on the ward twice with ketamine, I followed her out of the building and tried to get the number plate of whoever was supplying my sick child with ketamine." Izzy was subsequently admitted to A&E on 24 April the previous year before discharging herself. Izzy's cause of death was recorded as respiratory depression resulting from combined severe morphine and gabapentin toxicity. Both pain medications displayed higher-than-normal therapeutic levels in her blood, and the gabapentin would have worsened the toxic effects of the morphine. The post-mortem examination also revealed she had biliary sepsis, a localised infection in the liver, which may have been a contributing factor but was not the primary cause of death. The inquest also received testimony from Scott Davey of Reach, a drug and alcohol support charity that had been working with Izzy prior to her death. Coroner Brendan Allen enquired whether in his experience users became 'trapped in a vicious cycle' whereby the ketamine causes damage but users subsequently increase consumption to alleviate the pain brought on by that damage. Mr Davey said: "Yes, ketamine normally starts as recreational. The dissociative factors of it mean it can be used to mask mental health,external factors going on stresses with family, work. It becomes habitual. "It is very cheap, accessible, that plays into it massively. It's not the acute effect, it's the long-term effect where it's done physical damage and then being used to manage the pain, it's a Catch 22." Mr Davey stated there had been a rise in ketamine users during the two years he had worked with the charity. Ms Moralee continued: "Izzy was a beautiful, funny girl, highly intelligent, a talented photographer and dancer. "But as beautiful and smart as she was, she was also a master manipulator. The guys (at her GP practice and Reach) did everything they possibly could." The inquest in Bournemouth continues. Ensure our latest news and sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source.