Drinker ‘fell like a plank’ then died
CORONER WARNS OVER RISKS OF HEAVY BOOZING
A CORONER has warned of the danger of heavy drinking after a dad-of-three fell backwards suddenly “like a plank” in a town street, hit his head and later died.
Christy Henderson (73) was pronounced dead at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin shortly before midnight on December 19, 2021 following the incident in Dun Laoghaire a few hours earlier.
A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard Mr Henderson had been seen falling over backwards suddenly on Marine Road in the town.
In a statement read out at the hearing, eyewitness Lorenzo Borza said he had observed an unknown male fall “like a plank” on the street that evening.
Mr Borza said he also heard a sound like “a loud crack” before seeing blood coming from the injured party’s head and on the ground.
The witness said he did not want to move the victim, who was making some sounds, and that he could not understand anything he tried to say.
Mr Borza said the man, who had smelt of alcohol, looked like he had been asleep while standing up. He alerted the emergency services and an ambulance arrived around 20 minutes later.
The deceased’s daughter Michelle Henderson said she had been contacted by her mother Carrie at around 8pm to inform her that her father was in hospital after suffering a fall.
Ms Henderson gave evidence that staff at St Vincent’s told her that he had a bleed on the brain and would require a further scan.
Severe
However, she said she was updated 30 minutes later that doctors at Beaumont Hospital had concluded that they could not operate on the patient because of the severe nature of his injuries and that he only had about 21 hours to live.
Ms Henderson said she was brought to see her father, from Rochdale, Honey Park, Dún Laoghaire, who was unconscious and breathing heavily.
The inquest heard his vital signs started to decline and he was pronounced dead a short time later at 11.35pm.
In reply to questions from the coroner, Cróna Gallagher, Ms Henderson said her father was in the habit of socialising in a pub in Dún Laoghaire on afternoons. She said he had also recovered from a recurring brain tumour, while he had also experienced a number of previous falls.
Garda Robert Coles said he was satisfied that there was nothing suspicious in relation to Mr Henderson’s death and there had been no involvement by third parties in how he had sustained his injuries.
The inquest heard that no evidence had been established about the deceased’s whereabouts earlier that day and a postmortem found that levels of alcohol in his system were 212mg per 100ml of blood – over four times the legal drinkdriving limit.
Dr Gallagher said the actual level at the time of his death could have been close to 300mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood – equivalent to six times the drink-driving limit.
Returning a verdict of misadventure, the coroner said the finding represented that Mr Henderson’s death had arisen from an accident where the level of alcohol he had consumed was a risk factor.
Offering her condolences to his family, she said that the speed of his death must have come as “a great shock.”