{"id":10728,"date":"2025-08-20T03:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T03:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10728\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T03:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T03:37:11","slug":"he-quit-drinking-and-lost-20kg-after-alcohol-abuse-led-to-terrifying-health-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/10728\/","title":{"rendered":"He quit drinking and lost 20kg after alcohol abuse led to terrifying health scare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">People experience wake-up calls at various stages in their lives. For Derry Ainsworth, his big one came in 2024 while lying alone in pain in a Hong Kong hospital bed surrounded by the screams of sick and dying patients.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Hong Kong-based British photographer\u2019s health nightmare started on July 24, 2024, when he woke up with what he thought was a mild hangover. Then severe abdominal pain took over.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He called an ambulance and, in hospital, spent the first few hours crying in pain on a toilet floor until a nurse rushed him for a CAT scan and gave him morphine.<\/p>\n<p>The diagnosis was severe acute <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/2165958\/pancreas-all-you-need-know-how-it-works-best-ways-keep-it?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pancreatitis<\/a> (SAP), a serious condition in which the pancreas \u2013 a gland behind the stomach that plays a vital role in both digestion and blood sugar regulation \u2013 becomes severely inflamed. This can lead to organ failure and even death.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Derry Ainsworth in hospital in July 2024 after being diagnosed with severe acute pancreatitis. Photo: Derry Ainsworth\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4fd927a9-38f5-4431-a0e0-c8b50c2f75d3_2a48f19f.jpg\" title=\"Derry Ainsworth in hospital in July 2024 after being diagnosed with severe acute pancreatitis. Photo: Derry Ainsworth\"\/>Derry Ainsworth in hospital in July 2024 after being diagnosed with severe acute pancreatitis. Photo: Derry AinsworthWhile gallstones and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/magazines\/post-magazine\/food-drink\/article\/3223638\/i-started-have-panic-attacks-how-giving-alcohol-improved-mental-and-physical-health-three?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">alcohol<\/a> abuse are common causes of acute pancreatitis, many factors can lead to SAP. Sometimes the cause is unknown.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Ainsworth, who was 34 at the time, was told that the situation would have been much worse if the infection had entered his bloodstream or shut down his surrounding organs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People experience wake-up calls at various stages in their lives. For Derry Ainsworth, his big one came in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[10383,10382,10371,10368,10366,10370,18,10372,135,4202,10379,19,876,17,10375,10376,10369,10367,10374,10378,10381,10380,10377,10373],"class_list":{"0":"post-10728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alcohol-abuse","9":"tag-alcohol-related-illness","10":"tag-blood-sugar-regulation","11":"tag-ct-scan","12":"tag-derry-ainsworth","13":"tag-digestion","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-gallstones","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-hong-kong","18":"tag-hong-kong-photographer","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-instagram","21":"tag-ireland","22":"tag-kai-kung-leng","23":"tag-kam-tin","24":"tag-morphine","25":"tag-pancreatitis","26":"tag-roosters-ridge","27":"tag-standard-chartered-marathon","28":"tag-stop-drinking-alcohol","29":"tag-stopping-drinking","30":"tag-tai-lam-reservoir","31":"tag-turmeric"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}