Leah Betts
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Leah Betts (November 1977 - November 16 1995) was a schoolgirl from Latchingdon in Essex, United Kingdom. She is notable for the extensive media coverage that followed her death several days after her 18th birthday, during which she took an Ecstasy tablet, then collapsed four hours later into a coma, from which she did not recover.
The press were quick to report that Leah's death was an obvious example of the dangers of illegal drugs in general, and ecstasy in particular. Leah was from a quite ordinary family, with her father a policeman and her mother a nurse. That she was so ordinary likely contributed to the sense of shock around the country. Not long afterwards, a major advertising campaign used (with permission of the family) the image of Leah Betts on her deathbed, and the caption Sorted: Just one ecstasy tablet killed Leah Betts.
However an official inquest determined that her death was not directly due to ecstasy consumption, but rather the large quantity of water she had consumed, apparently in observation of an advisory warning commonly given to ravers to drink water to avoid dehydration. Betts had consumed about 7 litres (1.85 gal.) in less than 90 minutes, resulting in water intoxication and hyponatremia (a dilution of the blood, disrupting sodium levels), which in turn led to serious swelling of the brain (cerebral edema), irreparably damaging it.
It also arose later, though much less publicised, that the ecstacy tablet which Leah took that night was not her first. The media onslaught after her death focused heavily on the fact that it was the first time she had taken the drug; this was what shocked the British public most. This imbalance in media coverage is significant with regard to the government's position on the issue of drug use.