A 53-year-old man who died suddenly at his home at Kilsallaghan two years ago had high toxic levels of an anti-allergy drug in his system when he died, an inquest has been told. The inquest, conducted by Meath County Coroner Nathaniel Lacy into the death of Colin Grant, Maypole, Kilsallaghan, was held at Trim Courthouse.
Garda Donohoe, stationed Trim Garda Station at the time of Mr Grant’s death told the inquest that on 28 th June 2023 she got a call at 9.05pm to go to an address at Maypole, Kilsallaghan, Co Meath. The ambulance service was already at the scene. Mr Barry O’Rourke, identified the deceased to her as Mr Colin Grant who was pronounced deceased at 9.25pm. She later identified Mr Grant’s remains
to mortuary technician Glyn Tallon at Navan hospital.
Consultant pathologist Professor Muna Sabah who carried out a post mortem on the body of Mr Grant (53) told the inquest that she found that Mr Grant’s heart was larger than normal, weighing 550 grammes as against the normal 320-350 grammes. There was thickening of the left ventricle and this might lead to high blood pressure and hypertension. He also had some scarring in his heart. Samples of blood were submitted for toxicology. The blood contained beta blocker and that was a qualitative, not the concentration of the drug, and that was below therapeutic level.
The pathologist said that Mr Grant had an anti-allergy medication chlorpheniramine in his system and at high levels – 0.4 microgrammes per millilitre. Normal levels would be up to 0.0.7. Toxic levels would start at 0.0.2 to 0.0.3. She said that the concentration was “above toxic levels, more than 10 times above the toxic levels” but he was below lethal levels. This concentration was significant. Professor Sabah said she concluded that death was due to heart arrhythmia. The drug he was taking was a contributory factor in his death. In reply to the coroner she said that the medication was at the higher end of toxic but not into lethal.
A relative told Mr Lacy that he would use the medication at night because he found it relaxing. It would make him drowsy. “He didn’t get advice not to keep taking it”, the man said. He added that Mr Grant would have had a stressful life in the past few years. The coroner said the cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia in the context of cardiac fibrosis and a significant contributory factor was chlorpheniramine.
He returned a verdict that Mr Grant had died of natural causes. He and Inspector Alan Roughneed offered their condolences to the family of the deceased.
