Young mother took own life in emergency accommodation, inquest hears

By Louise Roseingrave

A young mother living in emergency accommodation died by suicide in a Dublin hotel, an inquest has heard.

The 27-year-old woman, her husband and children were staying in two rooms on separate floors of the hotel. She suffered from depression and bouts of self-harm an inquest into her death heard.

She was found critically ill in her hotel room at the Regency Hotel on the Swords Road in Whitehall, Dublin 9 on December 30 2016. The woman's husband was upstairs in a hotel room with the children and he came downstairs into his wife's room around 2am.

Witnesses heard the woman’s husband screaming for help after he entered the hotel room and found her. Emergency services were called and resuscitation efforts were initially successful. The woman was revived and transferred to the Mater Hospital.

Tragically she died in hospital three days later on January 2, 2017, due to injuries sustained in the incident.

A post-mortem conducted by State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis gave the cause of death as hypoxic brain damage due to a lack of oxygen to the brain. He found signs of previous self-harm in the form of cut marks on her arms.

A toxicology screening found traces of a number of prescription drugs in the woman’s system including the anti-anxiety drug diazepam, the antidepressant mirtazapine and the antipsychotic olanzapine, all at therapeutic levels. There was also morphine in the woman’s system.

The family had been living in the Regency Hotel for three weeks before the woman’s death. They moved into the hotel on December 13, 2016, the court heard.

Gardai investigated the incident and examined CCTV footage at the hotel and were satisfied the woman’s death was not suspicious. Neighbours said while it was easy to hear conversations from a room next door, the family had been relatively quiet since their arrival.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a verdict of suicide.

“It is very sad, my deepest condolences to you on the loss of a young mother in these circumstances,” the coroner said.