Overdose tragedy of mum too scared to see dentist
A TEACHING assistant accidentally killed herself with an overdose of prescription drugs because she was too scared to visit the dentist in lockdown.
Alexandria Pierce-Baddeley, 29, was so terrified of catching Covid-19 that she avoided treatment for a painful mouth abscess.
Instead the single mother, who had been prescribed beta blockers by her GP, tried to manage the pain at home. But she misjudged the number of tablets she could take and was found dead by her mother after she was unable to raise her.
Miss Pierce-Baddeley’s nine-year-old daughter was not at their home, in Winsford, Cheshire, at the time. An inquest heard Miss Pierce-Baddeley, a teaching assistant at a special school, developed the ulcer a few days before her death last May.
But she did not go to the dentist because she feared previous problems – she had suffered from bulimia and spent time in hospital with hepatitis, sepsis and pneumonia – put her at risk.
Her mother Angela Dutton said: ‘She was treating herself at home with painkillers and applying a homemade turmeric paste to the affected area.
‘I was fearful of Alexandria’s ability to safely manage her painkilling medication and was concerned she may take too many tablets.’ Miss Pierce
‘Treating herself at home with painkillers’
Baddeley’s ex-boyfriend Paul Johnson told the Warrington hearing he had ended the couple’s ten-year relationship a day before her death and she then sent pictures to him of tablets she had taken. One showed a large number of pink tablets.
Mr Johnson said he did not call police because she had threatened to kill herself before and he did not believe she was serious. Despite this, the coroner agreed with Mrs Dutton that Miss Pierce-Baddeley had not intended to take her own life.
Mrs Dutton said: ‘I believe any overdose was purely accidental.’ Tests showed her daughter had a blood alcohol level almost three times the drink drive limit. Empty wine bottles were found in her bedroom. A fatal amount of beta blocker medication was in her bloodstream.
Recording a conclusion of misadventure, coroner Heath Westerman said: ‘I believe the consumption of alcohol and a beta blocker was not done with the intent to end her life.’
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