Woman died of brain damage after ‘resting awkwardly’
‘Unfortunate and tragic’
A 60-YEAR-OLD woman suffered lethal brain damage after she ended up resting in an awkward position against her couch following a night out, an inquest has heard.
Anne McNeill went out with friends on January 7, 2017. She was seen returning home later and was described as ‘unsteady on her feet’.
Ms McNeill, of Walkinstown, Dublin 12, was found dead by her brother in a downstairs sitting room the following morning. Her brother described finding her in an awkward position that looked like she was crouching or kneeling against the couch.
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that while her level of alcohol was high, it was not at a toxic level. Pathologist Eamon Leen said she suffered a lack of oxygen to the brain due to compression of the blood vessels of the neck. Deputy Coroner Dr Crona Gallagher described this as an unfortunate and unexpected outcome.
Professor Leen gave the cause of death as hypoxia due to positional compression of the blood vessels, with alcohol intoxication as a contributory factor. He said the body’s natural reflexes would have woken the woman had she not been under the influence of alcohol.
‘You can’t really survive for more than five to ten minutes with prolonged compression of the arteries of the neck,’ Prof. Leen said.
‘If you were not intoxicated, your own reflexes within your body would wake you up before you got to this point... the alcohol would not have caused the death on its own.’
The inquest heard from the woman’s brother, Martin McNeill, who said she was in good general health.
‘The last time I saw her she was getting ready to go out with friends,’ he said. He said he left the house himself at around 6pm, and found his sister ‘not moving or breathing’ in a downstairs room the next day.
Dr Gallagher returned a verdict of misadventure, and said: ‘This was an unfortunate and tragic accident. She was socialising, she drank the alcohol, but not with any intent to hurt herself. She was very unfortunate that she ended up in that position.’