‘Too nice’ woman died from drugs cocktail: inquest

Overdose victim, 53, ‘never really got a handle of all her medication’

A WOMAN who died earlier this year after an overdose has been praised as being ‘too nice for this world’.

An inquest has been held into the death of EmmaMarie Milne, who died on May 27 at her home in Southsea.

At Portsmouth Coroner’s Court, friends and family heard how Emma struggled with various long-term medication, which led to her eventual death. It heard that she bought medicine over the dark web.

The 53-year-old was prescribed opioids in the late 1980s, took insulin for her diabetes and had also been prescribed additional medication.

On the day of her death, her housemate and close friend, Ed Wyatt, called 999 when he saw her passed out.

Paramedics rushed to their property but were unable to save her.

Mr Wyatt, who had known Emma-Marie for around 25 years, paid tribute to a woman who had a huge part in his life. He said: ‘She was too nice for this world.

‘We met on Hayling Island many years ago, when we were young. I never really got a handle of all her medication – I feel bad that I didn’t understand it better.’

The main cause of her death, said coroner Jason Pegg, was the 'cocktail’ of medication found in her system – some of which had been obtained illicitly.

But he added that she didn’t manage her type one diabetes properly, and the subsequent ketoacidosis would have contributed to her death. He said: ‘In 1988 there was an incident where she suffered an injury which ended up with her being prescribed methadone.

‘That was the start of things, but she was also taking heroin and other prescription drugs, which she occasionally stockpiled.’

A post-mortem discovered ‘established intravenous injection sites’ from historic use of heroin, and EmmaMarie’s lungs were congested. The coroner reached the conclusion that the cause of her death was the misuse of drugs.