Primary teaching assistant dies after snorting cocaine
A PRIMARY school teaching assistant died from a heart attack after snorting cocaine on a night out to celebrate a friend’s 40th birthday.
Jeanette Allen, 39, was found dead on a sofa the following morning.
Tests showed the cocaine she had taken with alcohol had triggered underlying heart problems.
Miss Allen was described at an inquest as a ‘well-loved’ member of the support staff at Shawclough Primary School, in Rochdale.
The night before she was found dead, she had decided to stay out later than her partner of 19 years, Robert Christian, who went home at 3am. Mr Chris-
‘I miss her like crazy’
tian, 42, told the inquest: ‘We had gone out together at about 6pm for a mate’s 40th and we were drinking all night.
‘The last time I saw and spoke to her was around 3am. She wanted to go to town and I didn’t so I left town on my own and headed home.
‘We didn’t go to Rochdale (town centre) that often and I didn’t hear her come in after me.’
He added: ‘I wasn’t aware that she was taking cocaine. Years ago she was a bit of a party girl, out a lot of the time, but it got less over the years.’
Describing the moment he found her body on May 28, Mr Christian recalled: ‘I woke up at about 12.50pm on the Sunday and I found her on the couch.
‘I called the ambulance and the paramedics came but I knew that she was gone.’
Mr Christian described Miss Allen as ‘the woman of my dreams’. He added: ‘ She would do any- thing for me, we did everything together. Her death has left me with a big hole. I miss her like crazy. She had so much that she was going to do.’
Mr Christian said that Miss Allen, from Rochdale, was diabetic, but her heart problem was not known about.
‘Her diabetes had been a problem in the years before her death,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t really controlled but it had got a lot better.
‘The ambulance did have to be called out a few times because of her diabetes.’
Pathologist Dr Sami Titi told the inquest in Heywood, Greater Manchester, that Miss Allen had 90 per cent narrowing of the arteries in some parts of her body, which put a strain on her heart.
He added: ‘Her diabetes did have an impact. She had an acute heart attack. As she had been drinking and taking cocaine that also would have put pressure on her heart.
‘The cocaine sped the process of the heart attack up. It is a risk of taking cocaine that you can have a sudden heart attack.’
Miss Allen’s GP records show that she had been seen regularly in the year before her death, for low blood sugar and complications with her diabetes.
She had also been diagnosed with kidney disease, and had been prescribed with anti- depression medication to combat anxiety and feeling low.
Recording a narrative conclusion at the inquest on Monday, coroner Lisa Hashmi warned of the dangers of cocaine use.
‘ Unfortunately, you cannot ignore the impact of the drugs in this case,’ she said. ‘The use of cocaine took a toll on her body.
‘I have heard the consequences of cocaine use and alcohol mixed with a heart condition which can result in a sudden death. Jeanette’s cause of death was natural. However, the use of the cocaine and the effect cannot be ignored.’