JP killed by heart attack on day she hit weight loss target
A MAGISTRATE who went on a fitness drive as she hit middle age died from a massive heart attack just hours after reaching her target weight, an inquest heard.
Jayne Harris, 52, stopped smoking several years ago and had cut down on her drinking. She also exercised regularly and joined a local Weight Watchers group – before collapsing after celebrating reaching her ideal weight.
But the fun-loving woman suffered from undiagnosed heart disease which could have caused a fatal coronary at any time.
Her husband, Chris, told coroner James Newman: ‘Jayne was someone very much focused on life and living, she was really desperate to become healthier.
‘We would drink maybe once or twice a week, five days a week she would go swimming, she had a very healthy lifestyle.
‘That morning she had come back from Weight Watchers and had gone below her target weight, she was very pleased. She had plans to increase her magistrate work and was trying to live life to the full.’
Mrs Harris, who sat as a magistrate in Buxton, Derbyshire, had complained of chest pains in her final years but was being treated by her GP for the effects of the menopause and assumed the chest pain was related.
‘Just tipped the balance’
Following a hearing at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court, Mr Harris said he hoped the tragedy would serve as a warning to other middle-aged women who experience such pain.
On the day Mrs Harris fell ill in October this year, she had been to a Weight Watchers meeting where she learned she had reached her target weight.
That evening, she enjoyed a few celebratory drinks with her husband. But Mrs Harris woke at around 11.30pm that night feeling unwell. Half an hour later, she collapsed in the bathroom and could not be roused. Paramedics battled for over an hour to save Mrs Harris before she was pronounced dead.
Pathologist Dr Danesh Taraporewalla said a post-mortem examination found one of the main arteries supplying her heart was 90 per cent blocked. The heart wall also showed signs of thickening.
The level of alcohol in her body was more than four times the drink drive limit of 80 milli- grammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, which had been a ‘contributory factor’ in her death. ‘If you already had a blockage in your artery, compromising the oxygen supply would have just tipped the balance,’ the pathologist said. But he added that the fatal heart attack could have happened at any time.
Mr Newman, assistant coroner for Derbyshire, told Mr Harris, 49, he did not ‘know many people who didn’t enjoy a drink once or twice a week’. In a short narrative conclusion he said: ‘Jayne Harris died as a result of natural causes complicated by elevated alcohol levels.’