Mother shares disturbing photos of 15-year-old daughter in coma after 'vodka binge'
A US mother has shared confronting photos of tubes stuck down her young daughter's throat, as she lay in a coma, in a desperate attempt to show other teenagers the dangers of binge-drinking.
Melissa Aho claims her 15-year-old daughter Ryleigh Ackles was left "foaming at the mouth, with vomit in her lungs" after falling over while heavily intoxicated.
Ryleigh had reportedly been drinking Cîroc vodka with her friends.
Ms Aho claimed her daughter almost died after her 41-kilogram body was treated with a blood alcohol content of 0.28
According to a blood alcohol concentration chart, a level of 0.3 for a young woman that size could result in death.
"Our pictures of her may be disturbing to some but our hopes are in sharing our pain we may be able to prevent and save another child," Ms Aho wrote in her confronting post on Facebook.
Ryleigh reportedly told her mother she was going to the movies and a sleepover at a friend's house on August 27, however the teen's plans changed that night.
Ms Aho claimed she received a Facebook message at 1am, which informed her that Ryleigh was "somewhere passed out”.
"Immediately my heart sank and I tried to call her phone repeatedly and of course there was no answer,” Ms Aho wrote.
The person who notified Ms Aho, drove Ryleigh to her Massachusetts home in a "lifeless state".
"I opened the car door to see my daughter, lifeless and foaming at the mouth covered in vomit,” Ms Aho.
When the ambulance arrived, Ryleigh was “unresponsive” and her distraught family were told she could no longer breathe on her own.
Ms Aho said her daughter was rushed in the ambulance and intubated in hospital.
In hospital, Ms Aho said Ryleigh was given Narcane, used to block the effects of opioids in overdose cases, but the teen remained lifeless.
The devastated mother said she "begged and pleaded” for her daughter’s life while having flashbacks from when Ryleigh was born, the first time she said “mumma” and her first day at school.
"I was thinking of her siblings and what losing her would do to them and the rest of her family and all of the people that love her.”
RELATED: This is what one tiny pill can do to you.
Thankfully after 14 long hours, Ryleigh "opened her big, beautiful green eyes to see her Mumma and asked for her sister”.
Ryleigh still suffers from bodily injuries, lacerations to her eyes and it is possible she still may develop pneumonia due to vomit in her lungs.
Ms Aho believed the group of teens her daughter was with, may have thought they would get into trouble if they got help "so they left her there”.
She praised the one teenager who didn’t care about getting into trouble and helped her daughter.
"That one girl saved my daughters life by contacting someone who could get ahold of me and if it were not for her the reality of it is I would be burying my daughter this week.”
"She didn't care about getting in trouble herself, she wanted to get her the help she so desperately needed, the other kids who left her I'm sure we're scared and didn't realise the severity of her condition at the time.
"Don't ever think this couldn't happen to you because it is very real and it's everywhere," she said.
Ryleigh is expected to make a full recovery.
Ms Aho said she shared the images to highlight how important it is for teenagers to look out for each other and to not be scared of reaching out if a horrible situation occurs.
