"What if it had been given to a child or a smaller woman? They would have never come out of it," Murphy told the Herald on Sunday.
She does not drink Sprite anymore and if she buys a drink she always tests it.
"I've learnt put your finger in the drink then taste it."
She felt her head "explode" within seconds of swallowing the fizzy, clear liquid. "I couldn't even say 'help me'. I couldn't speak because my throat was closed off. I could hear what was going on around me but I couldn't talk or breathe.
"All I thought was my daughter is coming home (from London) to see me in a box."
Her friend Heatha Anderson, 61, also sipped the drink but spat it out before she experienced a similar reaction. Both women were taken to Auckland City Hospital for treatment.