A 24-year-old woman died from long-term complications caused by the use of nitrous oxide and immobility, a coroner has ruled.

According to the investigation, Ellen Mercer died of a pulmonary embolism after inhaling two to three “large bottles” of the substance each day.

Senior coroner Heidi Connor said: “This case highlights the dangers of using nitrous oxide.”

Explanation: What is nitrous oxide?

The coroner described the student’s death as a “tragic waste of a young woman’s life”, adding that her use of the drug was “a significant contributor to her reduced mobility and blood clots”.

The inquest heard a post-mortem report found Ms Mercer’s death was caused by bilateral pulmonary thromboembolism, deep vein thrombosis and “long-term complications of nitrous oxide use”.

She was said to have been unable to get out of bed for the past two weeks due to her abuse of the drug.

Ms Mercer died in February last year after being admitted to hospital with blisters from a laughing gas canister stuck to her leg.

She had become a habitual user of nitrous oxide, and doctors who tried to save her reportedly found “signatures of neurological damage.”

Subsequent tests revealed that inhaling nitrous oxide caused Ms Mercer to suffer severe circulatory and breathing problems.

Her fiancé Tom Bailey told Sky News his lively, kind and loving partner would drink from three to four cans in one sitting.

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“Her reactions slowed and her face changed colour,” he said. “Then everything got worse because of the burns…and then she couldn’t walk, so she couldn’t go to the toilet.”

Mr Bailey added that his fiancée would “sit there and do everything” [the laughing gas] Done in one go. “

“It got to the point where she just couldn’t let it go,” he said. “She has to finish it and then she’ll want more.

“If she doesn’t have it, she won’t be happy without it.”

“Extremely serious social problem”

Addiction expert Chip Summers told Sky News that nitrous oxide itself is not addictive.

“It’s certainly addictive, psychologically and emotionally,” he explains. “But if you suddenly stop taking it, you won’t have physical withdrawal symptoms.”

Mr Summers called for better help for people who habitually use the drug. “We should take nitrous oxide use extremely seriously and treat it as a social issue,” he said.

Mr Summers works with people who have stopped using nitrous oxide and said these clients “have no problem with physical withdrawal”.

“But they are problematic because they are left with all the unhappiness and dysfunction that may have led them to start using some pretty mind-altering stuff in the first place,” Mr Summers added.

Last year the government Recreational use of nitrous oxide prohibited Dealers may now face up to 14 years in prison. At the time of the student’s death, it was not illegal to possess laughing gas for drug purposes.

Mr Bailey said he favored criminalizing users and publicly warned others of the drug’s serious consequences after his fiancée’s death.

But Mr Summers said he believed criminalization “is not the way to go”.

“These are not criminals,” he said. “They are people who need help and criminalizing them and imposing punitive fines or even jail terms may not really solve the problem.”