Newlywed mum found dead on hol
INQUEST INTO TENERIFE TRAGEDY OF 42-YEAR-OLD
A MUM-OF-ONE was found dead by her newlywed husband hours after enjoying a family meal on holiday in Tenerife, an inquest heard.
Victoria Jeffs, 42, had been on a three-week trip to the Spanish island with her husband and young son when she suffered a heart attack in her sleep.
The family from Middleton were due to fly home two days later – but in the early hours of August 26, 2017 her husband of eight months woke to find his wife unresponsive and blue in colour. Hours before, the couple had been enjoying a meal with her 11-year-old son and close friends, an inquest into her death was told.
Ronald Jeffs told the hearing at the Phoenix Centre in Heywood that during the meal, his wife had complained of pain in her ‘left side’ and had gone to bed early. Just a few hours later, he was performing CPR having woken to find her unresponsive.
Spanish paramedics pronounced Mrs Jeffs dead at the scene, after efforts to revive her were unsuccessful.
Mr Jeffs described his wife, who worked as a portfolio analyst for British Gas, as a ‘bubbly,’ ‘fun-loving’ and ‘beautiful lady.’
The couple had tied the knot in December 2016 and hadn’t even reached their first wedding anniversary at the time of her tragic death.
The family, from Middleton, had travelled to the resort of Los Cristianos in Tenerife two weeks earlier on August 6, the inquest heard.
“She seemed fine, but a couple of days before she died she had complained about a pain in the left side of her abdomen,” Mr Jeffs said. “I told her to go and see someone whilst we were out there but she said she would wait till we got back as we were due to fly home two days later.
“We had been out with friends who lived nearby that evening but at about 11.45pm Vickie said she felt unwell and went back to the apartment.
“I stayed with her son to watch the rest of the entertainment and went to bed about 12.45pm. Around an hour later, I heard Vickie making a strange noise, like she was snoring. I nudged her but she didn’t move. I noticed she was blue around the mouth.”
A Spanish post-mortem concluded that Mrs Jeffs had died from a heart attack caused by a tearing in the coronary artery, known as a coronary artery dissection.
The court was told that in July 2017 – a month before her death – Mrs Jeffs had been involved in a car accident on the Mancunian Way in Manchester city centre. She didn’t seek medical attention and insisted to officers at the scene that she was uninjured in the collision.
Coroner for Manchester North, Michael Salt, said he did not believe the car accident weeks earlier had played a role in Mrs Jeff’s death.
Recording a conclusion of natural causes, Mr Salt said: “Clearly what happened was very sudden and unexpected. Vickie had been out for a meal with friends and within hours was deceased. We have little by way of definite assurance as to why.
“The cause of death offered by the Spanish post-mortem would be rare but would be a plausible cause of death – which would be sudden, unexpected and would fit the circumstances here.
“This is a very sad and sudden death of a relatively young lady.”