A PATHOLOGIST is to be called to give evidence at the inquest of a 34-year-old man because of a “difficulty with the cause of death”.
John Moran (34), of Williams Place South, Dublin 8, was a drug user with acute alcohol-related hepatitis who had smoked heroin the day before he died.
However, toxicology tests found no traces of alcohol or drugs in his system and the cause of death was given as “bronchial pneumonia”.
Mr Moran died at home on December 1st, 2009, four days after he was released from an eight-week stay in hospital.
He was one of three men who died suddenly that day in Dublin and Garda Gráinne McAuley of Kilmainham Garda station said there were concerns at the time that the three men had died from contaminated heroin. However, she said toxicology tests from foil found in Mr Moran’s bedroom confirmed uncontaminated heroin.
His mother, Elizabeth Moran, who found him dead in his room, said she caught him smoking heroin from silver paper the previous day and told him “it’s like your dad all over again. Your dad died of cirrhosis of the liver.”
Mrs Moran said her son was not supposed to drink because of the hepatitis and she told him that he was “substituting one thing for another”. He told her it was only the one time. The family knew he drank a few cans a day but was unaware until a doctor in the hospital told them he drank 16 cans of beer daily and raw whiskey.
Mrs Moran, who attended the inquest with her three daughters, said she thought “he must have taken an overdose” but with the cause of death given as bronchial pneumonia “we’re actually just befuddled”.
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell said Mr Moran was in advanced liver failure and deeply jaundiced. He would speak to the toxicologist and ask the pathologist to attend the inquest.
He told the Moran family that “whatever happened, it was sudden and it probably happened in his sleep”. The case was adjourned until August 16th.
