A coroner warned of the dangers of taking cocaine and other controlled drugs after a young mother of three died after returning home from a night out with friends during which she had taken a line of cocaine.
Cork city coroner Dr Myra Cullinane told the inquest into the death of 26-year-old Tina Greaney from Killiney Heights in Knocknaheeny in Cork how taking cocaine after drinking alcohol increased the dangers of dying or suffering a major seizure.
Ms Greaney died after going out with some friends at about 10.30pm on the night of June 2nd. Her friend Joy Harrington said they had gone first to the home of another friend where Ms Greaney had two drinks and took a line of cocaine from a small bag of it she had brought with her.
They later went to a pub and nightclub in Cork city before going to a party in an apartment. Ms Greaney had a number of drinks before returning to her home in Knocknaheeny at about 5am, the inquest heard.
Ms Harrington told how she was concerned for her friend and called to her house about 5.30am. She found her crying at the edge of her bed but Ms Greaney told her there was nothing wrong and to go away, so she left. Ms Greaney's mother, Liz, who lived nearby, told how she was loading her car to go for a trip to Co Kerry at around 9.30am on June 3rd when she noticed the eldest of her daughter's three children calling to her from an upstairs room.
Mrs Greaney said she went to her daughter's house where she found her daughter lying on the floor at the foot of the stairs. She initially thought she had consumed too much drink.
When she turned her over and saw a blue pallor in her face, she realised her daughter was dead.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster carried out a postmortem which found a cocaine level of 5.4 microgrammes per millilitre of blood and an alcohol level of 140 microgrammes. She confirmed death was due to ingestion of cocaine.
Dr Bolster's report said the cocaine deaths are not related to dosage and explained a study of some 59 cocaine deaths found that the levels of concentration found in the deceased ranged from zero to 12.2 microgrammes per millilitre of blood.
Dr Cullinane said the case highlighted the dangers of taking even very small amounts of cocaine which could cause death either through heart attack or seizure, and she returned a verdict of death by misadventure.
Speaking after the inquest, Mrs Greaney outlined the devastation caused to her family by her daughter's death from drugs.
Mrs Greaney told of the huge sense of loss her family had suffered. "What I would say to anyone heading out for a night and thinking of taking drugs: think again and think of the consequences for themselves and for their family and their loved ones because you can't imagine the devastation it causes so many people.
"Tina is gone, she's buried but the pain of that day is with me, her sister, her brother. Her kids are too young to realise what happened, but a day will come when they will have to be told - it's a vicious circle of pain, loss and anger and all for what? A bit of powder up their nose?
"So please think before you do it and save some other mother having to go through what I'm going through and some other child from being six foot under."
Mrs Greaney appealed to people to remember that drug dealers are making large sums of money from their activities without ever really having to confront or face up to the pain and suffering they cause.
"Their families aren't doing it - and if they are, when it knocks on their door, it is then they might think of what happens, of the hurt and the pain and the loss and the anger that goes with it all."
