Cocktail teen stomach removed

ITV News North of England Correspondent Martin Geissler reports:

A surgeon told ITV News Granada that Gaby Scanlon has undergone a "very big operation" but she should still be able to live a "relatively normal life".

The 18-year-old, who had her stomach removed after drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen, will need to eat smaller meals more frequently and possibly take nutritional supplements, the surgeon said.

Lancaster's licensing chief has said he tried the cocktail containing liquid nitrogen that a teenager drank before needing an operation to remove her stomach.

Councillor Paul Aitchison, chairman of Lancaster City Council's Licensing Act Committee, said he went to Oscar's wine bar a few months ago and tried the same Nitro Jagermeister cocktail that Gaby Scanlon, 18, drank on Thursday night.

Mr Aitchison, 20, said:

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Prof John Ashton, a public health expert based in Cumbria, has warned of the dangers of drinking super-chilled cocktails after a Lancashire teen had to have part of her stomach removed after drinking a cocktail made with liquid nitrogen.

Prof Ashton told ITV Granada: "It's extremely dangerous. You've got alcohol, which in itself is dangerous, we've got liquid nitrogen which is a dangerous chemical.

"People should not be fooling around with these sorts of things."

Liquid nitrogen is a liquefied gas with a boiling point of -196C. When it changes to vapour at anything above that temperature it takes in an awful lot of heat and expands to about 700 times its liquid volume.

It is dangerous because it is so cold and because it expands so rapidly.

Liquid nitrogen will cause very rapid cold damage to flesh, and if the volume expands in a confined space it will expand and force out the oxygen, the body only detects when carbon dioxide arises not when the oxygen level is low and so it is very insidious.

Because the liquid nitrogen basically explodes in to its gas form when it comes in to contact with water because of the massive heat exchange it would cause rapid distension and may even explode in a confided space like the stomach.

It is has become increasingly popular in kitchens and is used to flash freeze foods. When used in this way on a water containing substance there is no formation of ice crystals, so the material remains a better texture.

But because it is so dangerous it must always be treated with caution and never ingested.

18-year-old Gaby Scanlon remains seriously ill in hospital after drinking a cocktail with liquid nitrogen. Doctors were forced to remove her stomach to save her life.

Police say her condition is serious, but stable, and she appears to have been well enough to send a tweet from her bed.

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An investigation in underway after an 18-year-old woman was taken ill during a night out in Lancaster city centre on Thursday evening.

The teenager reported feeling feeling breathless after drinking the lethal cocktail, according to The Westmorland Gazette.

She then developed severe stomach pain and was taken to Lancaster Royal Infirmary where she diagnosed with a perforated stomach and underwent emergency surgery to remove her stomach.

An 18-year-old woman from Lancashire has had her stomach removed after drinking a cocktail made with liquid nitrogen.

The young woman who remains seriously ill in hospital, had been drinking at a bar in Lancaster on Thursday night. The drink also contained Jaegermeister.

A Lancashire Police spokesperson said:

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