Man ingested drug

A YOUNG man died after ingesting a large amount of cocaine at his girlfriend’s house.

Jonathan Wilson, 24, of 17 Brookview Walk, Tallaght, died after swallowing cocaine at his girlfriend Jennifer Sweeney’s house on the morning of June 3, 2007.

Ms Sweeney told Dublin County Coroner’s Court yesterday that she came downstairs on the morning in question to find her boyfriend standing in the hallway with a bag and a glass of water in his hand.

“He was putting the contents of the bag in his mouth and drinking water,” she told the court.

Fifteen minutes later Mr Wilson collapsed and Ms Sweeney called the emergency services.

By the time Mr Wilson arrived at Tallaght hospital he had no pulse, he was not breathing and his pupils were fixed and dilated, which indicated brain damage, Dr Asim Rafiq told the court.

The inquest heard that the cocaine Mr Wilson had ingested had caused an irregular heart beat, which in turn had resulted in a lack of oxygen to his brain.

Pathologist, Dr Michael Wall, told the court Mr Wilson died of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy due to cardiac arrhythmia, due to cocaine toxicity.

Ms Sweeney said that on the previous night the couple had gone to bed early and when she told Mr Wilson she was leaving her phone on, he became angry and told her he was sleeping in the car.

The following morning he left the key of the house on the bed.

When she went downstairs she found him swallowing cocaine.

He collapsed about 15 minutes later and Ms Sweeney ran to get Jonathan’s mother, who lived across the road, and called an ambulance.

Dr Geraghty expressed his condolences and returned a verdict of misadventure.

“This is another tragic loss of a young life due to cocaine use,” he said.