Man who died from overdose carried two drugs packages internally

Tuesday 29 May 2018

A man who died from a heroin overdose despite the best efforts of his girlfriend and paramedics to revive him was found to be concealing two packages containing drugs inside him, an inquest has been told.

39-year-old Joao David Andrade, who was usually known as David or Joe, and was said to have a long history of drug taking, died at his flat in St. Helier on Friday 28 July 2017.

In a statement, Mr Andrade’s girlfriend said she knew he had a history of drug taking, but had never seen him taking anything illegal since she had moved in with him. She explained, however, that he had a bad back and that his GP had prescribed strong painkillers. He would often take these early in the morning and fall asleep on the sofa until the afternoon. So, when she came back from shopping on the day of his death, she wasn’t surprised to see him slumped on the sofa. She was unsuccessful when she tried to wake him before going back out, but said she was sure he was alive.  When she returned, about an hour later, he was foaming at the mouth. She called his parents to help, and they called an ambulance. Although paramedics used drugs to try and revive him, it was too late.

A post-mortem examination later found large quantities of both heroin and morphine in Mr Andrade’s body. The body breaks heroin down into morphine, and the rate at which it does this varies from person to person, so the States Analyst explained that he couldn’t be sure quite how much heroin Mr Andrade had taken, but the amounts were enough to have killed him.

Police searched the flat and didn’t find any drugs. But the post-mortem examination found Mr Andrade had two packages – both containing drugs – hidden inside him. The inquest didn't hear if they had or hadn’t contributed to his death. No evidence was given that they’d split, and no explanation was given as to why he might have been concealing them.

Relief Coroner Dr Martin Barrett concluded Mr Andrade had died due to the effects of drug taking, and that his death had probably occurred within three hours of taking the drugs.