Cause of death after toothache still a mystery

MYSTERY surrounds the death of a woman suffering from toothache who passed away suddenly in her sleep.

Carron Elizabeth Cairns, from Rawtenstall, was taking Co-codamol tablets for an abscess in her mouth and died at her Haslingden Old Road home on July 22, an inquest heard.

A post-mortem examination found codeine and paracetamol in her system ‘consistent with prior use’ but the pathologist could not exclude ‘previous excessive administration’.

Coroner Richard Taylor said the mother of Mrs Cairns, 48, had been staying with her while her husband was away on a school trip and she had gone to bed just before midnight on July 21.

Burnley Coroners Court was told that when her mother had not seen or heard from her the next morning she went into her room around midday and found she had passed away.

Mr Taylor said there was ‘nothing to suggest her death was suspicious’.

He said: “What is in the system is what you would expect to be in the system for the toothache she was suffering.

“As a coroner I like families to come to an inquest and have questions answered.

“How has our loved one died?

“What on earth has happened here?

“I can’t guess and make things up.

“I have to work on the information I have.

“It maybe that her body reacted to the paracetamol but I can’t say that because I don’t know.

“There’s nothing to suggest it’s anything other than a natural cause of some form but I can’t tell you anything more than that.

“Sometimes medical science hasn’t necessarily developed quite as far as we may feel.

“This maybe just a natural cause that we haven’t been able to detect.”

Mr Taylor ruled that her cause of death was ‘unascertained’.