{"id":478484,"date":"2025-10-06T16:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478484\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:41:14","slug":"forklift-driver-who-won-1m-on-scratchcard-rushed-to-hospital-after-three-months-of-partying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/478484\/","title":{"rendered":"Forklift driver who won \u00a31m on scratchcard rushed to hospital after \u2018three months of partying\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A forklift driver who became an instant millionaire<\/a> after buying a winning scratchcard was rushed to hospital<\/a> after spending three months partying<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adam Lopez, aged 39, from Mattishall, near Norwich, saw his bank balance rocket from \u00a312.40 to \u00a31,000,012.40 after winning the top prize on a scratchcard<\/a> purchased from a corner shop in Hellesdon, in July.<\/p>\n

But after quitting his job, he said his life became an \u201cabsolute rollercoaster\u201d with three months of partying and a loss of all structure in his life.<\/p>\n

His celebrations came to an end when he was taken by ambulance to hospital with a bilateral pulmonary embolism<\/a> on 10 September.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t walk, I couldn\u2019t breathe. I rang the ambulance, I got wheeled into the ambulance from my house and the biggest life-changing thing I had was laying in the back of that ambulance and hearing the sirens,\u201d he told the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Lopez,<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Lopez, pictured with his mother, was rushed to the hospital after partying for months following his win (Allwyn)<\/p>\n

Mr Lopez said he had a blood clot<\/a> in his leg which spread to his lungs, meaning he spent eight days at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. <\/p>\n

Describing his hospital visit as a \u201cwake-up call\u201d, Mr Lopez said he came to the realisation that his health mattered more than his lottery winnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just makes you look at both sides of life because it doesn’t matter if you have a million, 100 million, a billion, a trillion \u2013 when you\u2019re in the back of the ambulance, none of it matters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel in your lungs, the NHS explains. <\/p>\n

The life-threatening condition can cause difficulty breathing, chest pain and in some cases, people cough up blood. <\/p>\n

Blood clots affect tens of thousands of people each year in the UK, and can develop as a consequence of heart failure, or as a result of sitting or lying still for a long period, according to the British Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n

Mr Lopez said he will be putting his partying aside while he focuses on his health and recovery for the next six to nine months, as he praised the hospital staff for their work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-478484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115328220609036925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}