The circumstances of the deaths of eight Irish drug-users, allegedly due to a batch of contaminated heroin, are still unclear, a Dublin inquest was told yesterday.
Dublin City Coroner's Court held inquests into the deaths of Mr Karl O'Shea (28), from Crumlin, Dublin, and Ms Rosemary Lakes (21), also from Crumlin. The deceased man and woman were acquainted, but had not, as was reported in the media at the time, attended any party together in the days before their deaths, family members said.
Eight intravenous drug-users died in Ireland in a short space of time around May last year. There were 35 similar deaths in England and Scotland at the same time. The issue created what was described at the inquests yesterday as a "public health crisis" and batches of drugs, along with post-mortem samples of material from those who died, were analysed.
Mr O'Shea died at St James's Hospital on May 20th last year after being admitted in a state of agitation.
Ms Lakes had been pronounced dead at the same hospital the day before after being found in a collapsed state by her parents.
The coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, said that while it was not possible to definitively classify the deaths, they appeared to be due to a severe systemic illness as a result of inflammation at the site of injection, combined with morphine toxicity.
Following an outburst from members of Mr O'Shea's family, the coroner adjourned the inquest until November 21st.He recorded a verdict of death by misadventure in Ms Lakes's case.