Man, 39, died from a blood clot minutes after arriving at hospital

HIS DEATH, SHORTLY BEFORE CHRISTMAS, CAME AFTER BEING STUCK IN BED IN PAIN FOR 2 DAYS

A MAN died suddenly two days before Christmas as a result of a blood clot, an inquest has determined.

Kevin Schudlack, 39, died on December 23, 2019 after feeling unwell with a pain in his leg for a week.

Mr Schudlack, of Ffordd Coed Marion in Caernarfon, was living at home with his father and brother and had been in bed for two days leading up to his death.

An inquest into his death held in Caernarfon heard how on the day he died he was crying out in pain, which prompted his brother, Michael Schudlack, to call an ambulance.

Giving evidence during the inquest Mr Schudlack told the court how his brother was “unable to move” and was “acting strange” before his death.

Mr Schudlack died minutes after arriving at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.

Mr Schudlack’s brother said: “He was a good person but he was a heavy heroin user; he would use it every day.

“He’d been having a pain in his left leg for about a week before he died, he’d had a clot in his leg before so thought it was this but he didn’t seek medical assistance.

“It got worse and worse as the week went on and by Sunday he was aching all over. He had been in bed all day and at about 6:45pm he shouted to me, saying ‘I’m in pain, I’m in pain.’”

“I called the ambulance service and when they arrived the paramedic asked what was wrong and I told him about the pain in his leg and said it had got worse.

“He was in so much pain he struggled to get his trousers off for them to see. They brought him some gas and air but he said it wasn’t working.

“For some reason, the paramedics left and he went back to bed. I stayed in the room with him.

“Suddenly he stopped talking about the pain and his eyes started to go in opposite directions.

“I phoned my mum and told her he was acting strange so she called an ambulance.

“The same paramedics came back and then another paramedic came upstairs and gave him an injection to reverse the effect of an overdose in case that’s what he was having.

“I told them he hadn’t taken anything [heroin] since Friday and then he started to projectile vomit.

“They got him into the ambulance but he had a heart attack, then they gave him another injection.

“They managed to get his heart going again but 15 minutes later he had another heart attack and passed away.”

Speaking at the inquest, pathologist Dr Mark Atkinson, of Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, said that during the postmortem examination on December 24, 2019, he could not find any evidence of any obvious natural disease but found Mr Schudlack had a “very high level” of alcohol in his blood at 432mg – more than five times the legal driving limit.

During the inquest, Mr Schudlack was asked whether or not his brother had consumed any alcohol and he said he had not due to the fact that he had been in bed for two days.

Dr Atkins said: “There was a large discrepancy because in the urine there was only 38mg of alcohol. He would have had to drink the alcohol extremely quickly for this to happen.

“He also had methadone in his system, which was to be expected, but given the fact that he was used to it and had a higher tolerance, this was at a therapeutic level.

“However this would have added to the problem of having that much alcohol in his system.

“I also found amiodarone at a therapeutic level. This is not a drug of abuse, it is a pain drug taken by those with serious heart conditions. Why would he be taking that? I cannot understand how we found that.

“From the point of a postmortem, I have found nothing lethal but I have found methadone, a high level of alcohol and a strange drug present.

“For this reason, my provisional cause of death was given as multidrug usage with alcohol, particularly alcohol and methadone, due to the dampening down effects on the brain.”

Despite Dr Atkins’ provisional cause of death, he said that if Mr Schudlack did have a blood clot the paramedics would have given him an injection with medication to dissolve it and therefore it would not have been detected during a postmortem.

He added: “He was given medication to dissolve a clot, presumably the paramedics were trying random things to save his life.

“With the high level of alcohol in his blood, I have never come across a discrepancy to this degree.

“It would have to have been a large rapid intake of alcohol and I can’t explain it – he would have had to drink a huge amount; half a bottle of spirits or more, within 10 minutes to half an hour.”

Due to the discrepancy in the amount of alcohol detected in Mr Schudlack’s blood and urine samples, Acting Head Coroner for North West Wales Katie Sutherland adjourned the inquest to go through the evidence.

Summarising the inquest, the coroner concluded that Mr Schudlack had died as a result of a pulmonary embolism caused by deep venous thrombosis due to the fact that “the toxicology results were extremely varied”.

Ms Sutherland said: “Mr Schudlack had been suffering in bed for some time prior to his sad death.

“There was no alcohol in the bedroom and Michael Schudlack could not say when Kevin last took any drugs but suggests in term of alcohol it would have been before the Friday as he was in the house from Friday onwards.

“The toxicology results were extremely varied with 432mg of alcohol in his blood and only 38mg in the urine.

“In Dr Atkinson’s 40 years as a pathologist, he has never come across such a discrepancy before.

“It is clear that Mr Schudlack had been gradually unwell for sometime in the week prior to his death.

“I do not consider the level of ethanol in his blood to be reliable compared to the urine as usually, they would be figures roughly around the same. There was no evidence of alcohol in the bedroom, according to his family, and he did not drink much anyway.

“There was, however, evidence of pain in his leg.

“I conclude Mr Schudlack died as a result of a pulmonary embolism due to deep venous thrombosis which is a natural cause of death.”