Cork mother has lost three sons to heroin overdoses, inquest hears
“I have never heard, yet alone seen anything the like of this,” coroner Frank O’Connell said of the death of Alan Kidney, who like two of his brothers died as a result of heroin. “It is terribly sad.”
The inquest into Alan Kidney’s death in his bedroom in a house in Bandon in Co Cork on June 13 last was brief, but its impact resonates far beyond the walls of the courtroom.
An obviously distraught Carmel Kidney spoke afterwards of losing three sons, of having to pay for three funerals. The coroner, in delivering a verdict of death by polydrug use, with heroin found at lethal levels at autopsy, referred to the wider societal problem.
“I hope this is the end of it,” Mr O’Connell said. “I do hope this is the end of it, not just for you but for the people of this town. Someone is supplying drugs in this town.”
Alan’s brother, John, died from heroin aged 37 in September 2014. John’s twin brother, Fergus, died from heroin in the same apartment, in June 2016.
Alan was among those to give evidence at the inquest into his brother’s death. Yesterday Alan was the subject of another inquest, a hateful and unwanted hat-trick.
It heard first from Alan’s aunt, Josephine, with whom he was living at 12 Knockbrogan Terrace in the town at the time of his death.
Josephine Kidney’s statement, given to gardai on August 20 last, was read out. In it she described the morning of June 13 last and of hearing her nephew “in the bedroom, snoring”.
At 12.10pm she went upstairs and found Alan, on his knees and holding his head, between his bed and a small table. She said she couldn’t move him and rushed downstairs to all Dr Martin Lane and a priest.
The doctor arrived and checked on Alan, who was 44. He tried to resuscitate him, but to no avail. Alan had passed away. The doctor then pointed out a syringe on the bedroom floor. No one touched it.
Josephine Kidney recalled that the last time she had seen her nephew was much earlier that morning when he was downstairs to get a cup of tea.
Garda Brian Barry said he received a call at 1.05pm that day and was at the house five minutes later. The doctor informed him of Alan’s death and the circumstances of the discovery of the body and the attempts to resuscitate him.
At 1.15pm Alan’s aunt formally identified the deceased as Alan Kidney and the body was removed to CUH at 2.30pm. The Garda said he also took possession of the syringe, although Xanax was also found in the room.
It was a case of the needle and the damage done. Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster outlined the results of the autopsy conducted on June 14 last.
Methadone, heroin, alprazolam and carbamazepine were found in Alan’s system, with the quantity of heroin “potentially in the lethal range”. She said “all four drugs will have similar actions”, depressing the central nervous system.
She said the loud snoring heard by his aunt was “typical” of central nervous system depression - “he would have been in a coma”.
The autopsy also found some signs of heart disease, though this was not a central factor in the death and, said Dr Bolster, its presence was not unusual, “not in today’s world”.
Dr Bolster told Carmel Kidney that Alan would not have suffered. Josephine Kidney asked if he could have been saved if she had got to him sooner. Dr Bolster replied: “Not with that combination.”
Delivering his verdict Mr O’Connell said the polydrug use resulted in a coma and death. He offered his sympathies, and it wasn’t the first time the Kidney family have heard that.
Mr O’Connell said people can stereotype drug users but he had seen Alan testify at his brother’s inquest and had heard good reports about his character.
“It is quite shocking that would happen in one family, that three would die, two of them twins,” he said. “It is a very difficult situation.”
Carmel Kidney told him: “It has been very hard.”
