Sports bar manager died from acute alcohol poisoning

Tuesday 28 August 2018

A local sports bar manager died suddenly from acute alcohol poisoning after drinking the equivalent of nearly 20 shots of honey liqueur, an inquest has concluded.

65-year-old Maria Vieira Milho was found dead on the evening of Tuesday 10 July this year.

The Madeiran national had worked in the hospitality industry since coming to the island in 1976. At the time of her death, together with her husband, Jose, she was helping run the Benfica Sports Bar in Cattle Street, and lived in a flat above the bar. The couple were reported to have been making retirement plans and intended to return to Portugal.

The inquest, which was held at Morier House (pictured), heard Mrs Vieira Milho wasn’t an alcoholic. Indeed, she would often go for up to six months without having a drink at all, but would then have one or two at a weekend. This often coincided with periods of stress.

According to a statement from Mr Milho read out at the hearing, the day of his wife's death started out like most days. The couple woke at around 09:00, and two hours later he went downstairs and opened the bar. The pub wasn’t busy so he didn’t need any help.

At 15:15, he went upstairs and asked his wife if she could come down and cover for him so he could get a sandwich. There was no sign that she’d been drinking.

Although she never came down, he didn’t think anything was wrong. She was often tired of an afternoon and he thought she may have fallen asleep.

When he went back up at 18:20, he found her lying face down on the floor between two single beds normally pushed together. He tried to wake her, but when that failed he called an ambulance. They later declared her dead.

Mr Milho said he noticed that there was an empty bottle of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey - a whiskey-based honey liqueur - by the bed. The last time he’d seen it, it was half full.

Pictured: Mrs Vieira Milho helped run the Benfica Sports Bar in Cattle Street. (Google Maps)

Medical tests later found Mrs Vieira Milho had blood alcohol levels four times that of the legal drink drive limit, roughly consistent with having drunk 17 shots. Tests also indicated she’d drunk the half bottle in "quite a short period of time."

Whilst the inquest heard alcohol affects different people in different ways, it’s possible that it affected her worse than it may have many others, as she was not a regular drinker, and hadn't eaten anything in advance. The speed at which it was drunk was another contributing factor.

In his conclusion, the Deputy Viscount, Advocate Mark Harris, put the cause of death down to "acute alcohol poisoning", but noted that a contributing factor might have been breathing problems having slipped between the beds and having found herself face down on the floor.