Teenager died of cocaine induced heart failure, inquest jury concludes

Paul Magee (19), Rutland Grove, Crumlin, Dublin, was found unconscious in a Garda cell and taken to hospital where he died on December 26th, 2002. The inquest heard he had taken a “snowball”, a mixture of cocaine and heroin, before he entered the home of his ex-girlfriend’s sister in Dolphin House, south inner-city Dublin, in the early hours of St Stephen’s Day, 2002.

He had been drinking there earlier at about 2.30am and was asked to leave the home by Jacqueline Dowdall who had a two-year-old asleep in the flat at the time. He returned and grabbed a knife in front of five people who were in the flat and complained of being followed by men with guns. He was described as being “out of it”, tripping and hallucinating with cocaine powder around his mouth. He started a fight with a man in the flat and had to be restrained by gardaí who were called to the scene.

State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy said Mr Magee exhibited signs of “excited delirium” from drug-taking. An undetermined amount of cocaine was found in Mr Magee’s bile, but no blood sample could be taken so no test could be done for heroin. The usual practice for dealing with somebody with excited delirium is to sedate them, she explained, but, though it is now well-recognised in other countries, it was poorly understood at the time of Mr Magee’s death even by medical professionals in Ireland.

Though he had several bruises and showed signs of abnormal blood clotting, it was not enough to cause death. She concluded that he died from cardiac arrhythmia as a result of taking cocaine.

Mr Magee was arrested and taken into custody at Kilmainham Garda station. He was found unconscious just seven minutes after being placed in a cell to cool down and died later on St Stephen’s Day in St James’s Hospital.

The jury of six men and four women at Dublin City Coroner’s Court returned a verdict of death by misadventure. They recommended that the best practice internationally for dealing with people who present themselves to the emergency services with drug-induced conditions should be adopted in Ireland. They also recommended that there should be an ongoing public awareness campaign of the dangers of drugs.

Solicitor for the family James McGuill said it was not in dispute that Mr McGee had taken drugs on the night that he died, but if he had received hospital treatment instead of being taken immediately to a police cell, there might have been a different outcome.

He said the case appeared to demonstrate a “critical absence” of training to deal with drug intoxication and it was important that lessons were learned.

Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell said the type of cocaine seizure which led to Mr Magee’s death was not dose-related and it affected different people in different ways.