Adam Lopez, a Norfolk, England resident, who won $1.3 million, had too much of a good thing, with the man ending up in hospital on September 10, suffering from pulmonary embolism.
This came on the tail of a party bender that saw Lopez lean heavily into the win and enjoy the finer things of life – perhaps a bit too much. Thankfully, he has made a full recovery and has finally caught his breath, as it were, to consider his behavior.
Acknowledging his actions, Lopez said that the hospitalization has been a “massive, massive wake-up call,” a “kick up the backside” as he phrased it more robustly.
A Real Kick Up the Backside
“I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t breathe. I rang the ambulance, I got wheeled into the ambulance from my house, and the biggest life-changing thing I had was lying in the back of that ambulance and hearing the sirens,” Lopez said, recounting his story
“I knew what I was doing was going to come to an end eventually, and it nearly came to an end in the worst possible way,” he told the BBC. Yet, his behavior was not entirely surprising. After the man was reduced to just $17 in his bank account, he decided to scoop up five lottery scratch-off tickets.
Just like that, one of the tickets proved to be the winner, fetching the eye-watering seven-figure prize. Lopez himself is quite a character, and he has done other noteworthy things to earn him fame. He actually broke the world record for running a mile through a swimming pool back in 2023.
It is not exactly clear how much of his original win remains intact due to his partying.