Man dies after high-alcohol, cold meds combo

A Quebec coroner says a man’s death last December was caused by a combination of cold medication and four cans of a sugary high-alcohol drink.

Pierre Parent, 30, drank two cans of Four Loko before going to his parents for dinner last Christmas Day and knocking back a 473millilitre bottle of Smirnoff.

Four Loko has an alcohol content of 11.9 per cent, while Smirnoff has an alcohol content of 4.8 per cent.

Coroner Yvon Garneau’s report, which was released Tuesday, states Parent began complaining of a sore stomach in the evening and then drank two more cans of Four Loko before swallowing two acetaminophen pills during the night.

Parent’s loved ones say he was hooked on sugary high-alcohol drinks and would have “at least two cans a day,” according to the report.

Parent was shaking severely the following morning and was unconscious, even though his eyes were open.

His girlfriend called for an ambulance and tried to revive him but he was later declared dead in hospital.

Garneau concluded that Parent died from cardiac arrhythmia caused by a combination of alcohol, caffeine and chlorpheniramine, an antihistamine. The source of the caffeine was unclear.

In an interview, Garneau said Parent had a weakened heart and a “very, very sick liver,” adding the organ was “compatible with a problem of alcoholism.”