Talented student died days after turning 21
A TALENTED student who developed a “taste for the party lifestyle” died after drinking an “excessive amount of alcohol” just days after his 21st birthday.
Kameron Chatwell was found unresponsive by his mother Micaela Owen at her home in Barry on May 19 after an evening of heavy drinking, an inquest heard.
The pair had watched the final of the Eurovision Song Contest and Mr Chatwell drank a bottle and a half of wine and four bottles of Desperado.
Mr Chatwell left in the early hours of of the morning in a taxi to go back to his aunt’s house where he was living but was brought back to his mother’s house after he fell asleep and was unable to give the taxi driver his full address.
An inquest in Pontypridd heard Mr Chatwell was taken inside by his mother and her partner and continued to sleep in the hallway having been put in the recovery position.
At about 8am Ms Owen found her son unresponsive and dialled 999. Mr Chatwell was taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff but died later that day.
Giving evidence, Ms Owen said her son had studied a foundation degree in computer science at Aberystwyth University in 2016 and it was during this time he started drinking heavily.
She said he drank excessive amounts of alcohol which caused concern for his friends and family and he began taking drugs such as MDMA. Because of this he would often miss classes.
After he completed his course, he went on to study media at Swansea University but left after his first term and returned to live with his mother and started working at McDonald’s.
Ms Owen said his party lifestyle continued and Mr Chatwell carried on drinking regularly with friends which caused a rift in their relationship. She said she had tried talking to her son about his drinking but he would “walk off or ignore you”.
The pair decided it would be best if he moved in with his aunt, Tammi Owens. But Mr Chatwell continued to drink and would take cocaine which he bought fortnightly as well as unprescribed Xanax pills, the inquest heard.
Speaking about the night of May 18 Ms Owen said: “He called me at about 9.30pm and came over at about 9.50pm. When he arrived I didn’t smell alcohol so I didn’t think he had been drinking before he arrived. He brought a bottle of rose wine and four Desperados. He drank them and had two glasses out of my bottle. This was the first time we had drank together in about two years.
“When he left he was tipsy but he was in good spirits and seemed coherent. I have definitely seen him worse before. About 40 minutes later he came back. The taxi driver said he had been to my sister’s road but he didn’t know which house it was and Kameron had fallen asleep. Myself and my other half tried to get him out of the taxi but it wasn’t working – he’s a big lad.
“The taxi driver took over with my partner. They managed to get him out of the car and put him onto a blanket. I paid the taxi driver and we carried Kameron inside. When we got inside we decided to leave him in the hallway because we couldn’t carry him. I put him into the recovery position and put a pillow behind his head in case he vomited.”
She added: “I slept on the sofa in the room next door and I could hear him snoring. I fell asleep at about 4am. When I woke up the next morning it was something past eight and I realised straight away that I couldn’t hear him snoring. I went to look and knew straight away that something wasn’t right. His skin had changed – it looked blue. I was checking for a pulse but I couldn’t find one. I put my hands on his chest to feel for him breathing in and out and I couldn’t feel anything.”
She said she dialled 999 and began CPR. When paramedics arrived Mr Chatwell was in cardiac arrest. They managed to bring his heart rate back to normal and he was taken to hospital. He was transferred to the critical care unit but died later that day.
Following a post-mortem examination, a pathologist gave a likely medical cause of death of “aspiration pneumonia with alcohol levels of 109mg per decilitre [of blood]”.
Coroner Aled Gruffydd accepted the cause of death and recorded a narrative conclusion.
He said: “Kameron gained good GCSEs and went on to study A-levels and then went off to Aberystwyth University to study for a foundation degree in computer science. It was while living in Aberystwyth Kameron developed a taste for the party lifestyle.
“Kameron would drink excessive amounts of alcohol and this continued when he left university. Kameron died from aspiration pneumonia and alcohol toxicity.”