A 19-year-old girl, Samantha Jenkins, has reportedly died due to excessive consumption and swallowing of chewing gums.
Jenkins who hails from South Wales died in a hospital days after having a violent seizure owing to the eruption of the gum in her stomach.
According to Mirror UK, doctors found large lumps of chewing gum in her stomach which prevented her body from absorbing the vital minerals it needs.
Before she died, Jenkins was said to have been eating at least 14 sticks of mint flavoured chewing gum daily.
At the inquest into her death, the coroner, Colin Phillips said, “Sam had normal eating habits but did chew gum to excess. Sam’s death was due to complications arising from convulsions, due to electrolyte imbalance, due to malabsorption.
“Excessive consumption of chewing gum may have played a role in inducing this lack of minerals and mineral depletion.”
Jenkin’s mother, Maria Morgan, 45, has spent four years campaigning for Tuesday’s inquest which she hoped would finally explain the mystery of her daughter’s death which was initially put down to natural causes.
Describing how Jenkins collapsed, Mrs Morgan said, “She had complained of feeling unwell that day and told me she felt a headache coming on and had pins and needles.
She went upstairs that night and suddenly shouted down to me: ‘Is this what it feels like to die? I feel paralysed.”
Mrs Morgan told the inquest, “On Friday June 3, 2011, myself and my family’s lives were turned upside down and destroyed forever when my beautiful daughter Sam became unwell late one evening and suddenly collapsed at our home.
“She was rushed to hospital and put in an induced coma to control her fitting and convulsions while getting her salts back up to a normal level – unfortunately the damage had already been done and the continuous fitting had caused her brain to swell causing her to have a brain stem death.
“She never recovered consciousness.”
