A Dublin woman who became engaged on Christmas Eve 2005 died a few hours later on Christmas morning from a brain aneurysm that may have been undiagnosed since birth, an inquest has heard.
The 34-year-old died after being rushed to St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin when her fiance noticed that her breathing had become laboured.
The couple had been celebrating their engagement the night before by snorting lines of cocaine, drinking champagne and smoking cannabis, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard yesterday. But the cocaine in her system was not a factor in her death, coroner Dr Brian Farrell told the court.
Her fiance told the inquest that she had been suffering from severe headaches four months before her death and her doctor had prescribed antibiotics, believing she had a virus.
"It wasn't a virus, the headaches were due to this aneurysm," Dr Farrell told the court. Her mother said her daughter often complained of severe headaches.
The woman asked the coroner if her daughter's life "could have been saved" had the aneurysm been diagnosed. Dr Farrell replied: "It's difficult to say. There would have needed to be the diagnosis first." He recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.
"We were concerned that cocaine was a factor but it was not. The aneurysm could have ruptured at any time but it occurred, tragically, on Christmas morning. . . She just became engaged that night, it's such a tragedy really," Dr Farrell said.
Her fiance told the inquest that he presented the woman with an engagement ring at her parents' house on Christmas Eve. The couple then went home to celebrate privately. She snorted "a couple of lines" of cocaine as well as drinking some champagne, vodka and smoking cannabis.
They went to bed at about 4am on Christmas morning but he soon noticed her laboured breathing. "I tried to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. It was as if she was in a coma."
A postmortem found that an undetected aneurysm in her brain had ruptured, causing a massive haemorrhage. Dr Farrell said she probably became unconscious instantaneously and "did not suffer". A low level of alcohol as well as cocaine was detected in a toxicology screen.
Dr Farrell said that while cocaine can elevate blood pressure, it seemed to be a "coincidence" that she had snorted cocaine hours before her death. It was possible that the aneurysm was present since birth.