Open verdict on collapse addict

Collapse addict's death 'not certain'

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.