Welsh teenager likely killed by excessive chewing gum habit

Samantha Jenkins' excessive chewing gum habit could have claimed her life. Photo / Facebook

A Welsh teenager has left behind a heartbroken family after her excessive chewing gum habit could have claimed her life.

Samantha Jenkins, 19, died after complaining that she had an upset stomach, which she initially blamed on a bottle of soft drink.

When her family searched her bedroom in Felinfoel in south Wales they found a huge amount of empty chewing gum boxes and wrappers.

After her autopsy found "four or five bright green lumps" that turned out to be gum, coroners ruled it could have played a part in her death.

Now, 10 years on, her shattered mother Maria Morgan has recalled the tragedy, honouring her daughter as "bubbly, vivacious and fun loving".

"I remember it like it was yesterday," she said.

"I was making tea in the kitchen and there was just normal banter around the table. She continued to say she didn't feel well. I said, 'You have been out in the sun, come and drink some water, it's been boiling today, you're probably just a bit dehydrated'.

"I told her to go and have a lay on the bed and take a bottle of water with her as she probably had too much sun. Then I heard this thud.

"Me and my other daughter got up and went to the door and I said, 'What the hell was that?' And she shouted downstairs, 'Is this what it's like to die?' and then we heard a thud again."

Samantha was having a fit, and was rushed to hospital where she was put into an induced coma.

"She never came back," Morgan said.

The gum Samantha was eating contained aspartame and sorbitol which causes body salts to drastically drop. Photo / 123RF

"We were basically told as far as they could see that something had poisoned her. It was just about trying to fathom out what it was so they could possibly save her.

"One day, my other daughter mentioned that Samantha used to chew chewing gum, so I mentioned that to the coroner's office because she did chew gum a lot.

"Me and my daughter went into her bedroom and just emptied everything and went through everything in her bedroom to see if I could find something.

"Every bag that she had and every drawer there were chewing gum wrappers, empty chewing gum boxes.

"I couldn't have told you how much she chewed, but I could say what I found – evidence that she was chewing them every day and was buying at least a packet a day on the way to work, sometimes two packets."

To Morgan's horror, after researching the particular gum her daughter was eating, she discovered it contained aspartame and sorbitol, which cause the body's salts to drastically drop.

"The coroner wouldn't put down that it was definitely from chewing gum, but aided from chewing gum," she said.

"Ten years on there are so many 'whys' for me, but the biggest why is why on earth have I lost my daughter to chewing gum? I mean chewing gum, come on, it's ridiculous.

"I still can't get my head around it. She was such a loss. Bubbly, vivacious, fun loving, wouldn't harm a fly."