A CORONER was not certain about what caused a drug user's death after tests showed he may have had a heart abnormality.

Bolton Coroner's Court heard that Lee Fitzsimmons, aged 26, of Park Road, Bolton, had smoked heroin for two years before he died last September, and had started injecting the drug in the months before his death.

But a post mortem examination showed that although Mr Fitzsimmons had taken heroin, he had not overdosed. His heart was enlarged and he could have suffered from an abnormal heart rhythm.

Recording an open verdict, Alan Walsh, assistant deputy coroner, said he could not be certain what caused his death.

A CORONER recorded an open verdict after it was unclear what caused the death of a drug user.

Lee Fitzsimmons, aged 26, of Park Road, Bolton, told his mother he had been smoking heroin for about two years. He had tried to get off the drug, but had also begun to inject it a few months before his death.

On the day he died last September a friend and carer, Jonathan Anderson, drove him to Bolton town centre to pick up his social security cheque before taking him home.

After arriving back at his own flat in Columbia Road, Mr Anderson heard someone banging on the door. He found Mr Fitzsimmons swaying in the doorway before collapsing.

Mr Anderson dragged him down the stairs into the fresh air. Paramedics were called and they tried to revive him, but he died later at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

A post mortem examination found that Mr Fitzsimmons's heart was enlarged. Blood samples also showed he had taken heroin recently, but not enough for an overdose to be the cause of death. It was suggested Mr Fitzsimmons could have suffered from an abnormal heart rhythm.

Alan Walsh, assistant deputy coroner, recording an open verdict, said he could not be certain what caused Mr Fitzsimmons's death.