Cocaine killed healthy young Dublin father two days before Christmas

Seán Farrell (35), who came originally from Walkinstown, Dublin, was found unresponsive in the bedroom of his partner’s house

By: irishmirror.ie

Jul 19 2024
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Cocaine killed healthy young D

Cocaine killed an otherwise healthy young Dublin father of three two days before Christmas in 2022, an inquest has heard.

Seán Farrell (35), who came originally from Walkinstown, Dublin, was found unresponsive in the bedroom of his partner’s house at Cushlawn Dale, Tallaght on the morning of December 23, 2022.

An inquest into his death at Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Farrell’s partner, Danielle Griffin, was unable to resuscitate him. Ms Griffin, who was excused from giving evidence to the inquest “on compassionate grounds” told gardaí in a statement that she had spoken to her partner earlier that morning at around 6.30am.

After getting up at around 10.15am, Ms Griffin said she rang the emergency service at 10.30am after she could not wake him when she called in to say goodbye. The inquest heard paramedics had arrived at the house just over 10 minutes later and had unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate him over the following three-quarters of an hour.

Garda Michael Fox told the hearing that Mr Farrell was formally pronounced dead at 1.40pm. Asked by the coroner, Aisling Gannon, if there were any concerns over how Mr Farrell had met his death, Garda Fox replied: “Nothing suspicious whatsoever.”

The court heard that medical records from the deceased’s family doctor showed he had “some struggles” but nothing which was of specific note concerning his death. Ms Gannon noted that Mr Farrell had also suffered from persistent nose bleeds. The results of a postmortem found evidence of cocaine and some sleeping tablets in his system.

The coroner said the autopsy had found no underlying health condition that could have contributed to Mr Farrell’s death. She also confirmed that he had not suffered any assault or injury to his body. The postmortem showed that Mr Farrell had some myocardial fibrosis or scarring of tissue in the heart muscle which it linked to his use of cocaine.

The pathologist attributed the cause of his death to cardiac arrhythmia – an irregular heartbeat – due to cocaine use. Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, Ms Gannon said Mr Farrell had died from “the impact of cocaine” with no other contributory factor.

Offering her sympathy to the deceased’s relatives, the coroner said his death was the unintended consequence of the intentional act of taking the drug.

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