Man wins £1 million with scratch card and ends up in hospital

Adam Lopez, 39, a forklift driver from Mattishall in the United Kingdom, felt like a king at the beginning of July. He scratched off a £12.40 ticket, saw the amount appear on his screen, and within seconds, he had more than £1 million in his account. That’s over €1.15 million.

Without hesitation, he quit his job. What followed were three months of drinking, partying, luxury, and the feeling that anything was possible. He celebrated as if he would never have to stop. But that party came to an end sooner than he ever imagined.

On a normal day, things suddenly went wrong

On 10 September, Adam experienced chest pain and felt like he couldn’t breathe. He was rushed to hospital. The diagnosis: a double pulmonary embolism. This is a serious blockage in both lungs, often fatal.

‘I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that I couldn’t go on like this forever,’ he said in an interview with the BBC. ‘But I didn’t think it would end like this. This was a huge wake-up call.’

At that point, Adam could no longer walk or talk. In the ambulance, with the sirens blaring above his head, he thought it was over. 

‘I’ll never forget that moment.’

The blow hit hard, but it came in time

After eight days in hospital and a lot of soul-searching, Adam realised that money does not guarantee happiness. 

‘You can have all the money in the world, but when you’re lying there and your body gives up, it means nothing.’

He is incredibly grateful to the emergency services who saved him. He will have to take it easy for the next six to nine months to make a full recovery.

Adam lost his structure and himself

In hindsight, the moment he quit his job as a forklift driver turned out to be a big mistake. 

‘My whole rhythm disappeared. No alarm clock, no goal, no reason to stop partying,’ he says openly. ‘I became completely detached from who I was.’

At The National Lottery, they are seeing more and more people who suddenly become millionaires struggling with their new life. Adam is not the only one who feels he has lost himself due to sudden wealth.

Other winners also went under

Adam’s story is similar to other lottery stories that did not end well. Such as three poignant cases of winners who lost everything after their moment of luck.

And the contrast with happy winners is stark. Like the family in Michigan who won $84.24 million in a New Year’s lottery earlier this year and chose to remain calm and live anonymously. No crazy spending, no chaos. A completely different approach.

Adam now hopes that his story will wake others up. 

‘I almost paid the price of my life,’ he says. ‘Literally.’