THE DUBLIN city coroner warned about sudden death from heroin use yesterday at the inquest of a man who was said by his family to have been clean for 12 months.
The inquest heard that Brian Byrne (30), St John’s Road, Clondalkin, was taken to St James’s Hospital on October 17th last having been found in the toilets of the Harding Hotel on Fishamble Street with a syringe in his leg.
Mr Byrne was found by Nathan Towey, manager of the hotel. Mr Towey said that Mr Byrne did not appear to be breathing.
At St James’s Hospital he remained on a ventilator until his death on November 13th.
Mr Byrne’s mother, who attended the inquest, said her son had been clean for 12 months before the incident. Mr Byrne’s partner of nine years Ann Roe, with whom he had two daughters, told the inquest she had spoken to him by phone minutes before the incident, “he sounded fine and he was talking about getting the kids things from Santy”.
Ms Roe said her partner had attended a drug rehabilitation programme at Coolmine to help him remain drug-free. She said he had worked that summer as a plasterer, had started college in September and was due to attend classes on the night of the incident.
In his summary of the pathologist’s report, coroner Dr Brian Farrell said Mr Byrne had tested positive for morphine and sedative benzodiazepines. He said Mr Byrne had “suffered irreparable brain damage due to complications of the injection on October 17th”, and he warned that users can “experience sudden death if they have a toxic reaction to heroin.”
