X-rays have been released revealing the damage that cocaine does to your brain after a man suffering from confusion and a fever went to hospital.
The man, 45, was taken to casualty by his parents after falling over and had a cut above his eye. He was found to have an infection and soon fell into a coma.
MRI scans at the Mater Dei Hospital in Malta revealed that there had been permanent changes to white matter in his brain.
As he remained unconscious there were regular scans of his brain and they show nerve cells in the white matter have died. White matter controls learning, problem solving, walking, balance and mood.
When he came round from his coma a month later he suffered from symptoms similar to dementia.
He was diagnosed with leukoencephalopathy – progressive brain damage caused by persistent use of cocaine.
Antibiotics and antiviral drugs did nothing to help and he became increasingly unwell, according to doctors led by Dr Ylenia Abdilla, according to the British Medical Journal Case Reports.
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The patient remembered hitting his head but was so confused that doctors wrote: ‘The patient was not cooperative, unable to perform simple tasks and was not following commands.’
After two months of hospital treatment he suffered from moderate cognitive impairment.
A year later he still shows signs of brain damage, but his thinking ability had returned to normal levels and he was living independently.
Dr Abdilla’s team added: ‘Prognosis [for cocaine-induced leukoencephalopathy] is poor – the condition progresses rapidly and often leads to death.
‘Rarely it has been reported to result in complete recovery, as in our case.’
He has since stopped taking cocaine.
