Mother ‘taunted over weight’ died of drug overdose

Mother-of-three Tammy French, 32, had been taking prescribed drugs for depression, but had recently begun to feel better, according to husband Darren.

He told an inquest she was “all right” until people started to comment on her weight after the operation.

The hearing was told that two months before her death, Mrs French, of Chester Road, Wheatley, Doncaster, took an overdose of tablets mixed with lager.

Mr French told coroner Nicola Mundy that his wife locked herself in the toilet, but he forced the door and found her trying to cut herself.

He said he took the knife, calmed her down and after she told him she had taken tablets he called the emergency services and she was treated in hospital.

Mrs French never talked to her family about the incident, but her husband told the inquest: “She told me she would never do it again.”

He said she took a few days to get over it then started to pick up. “I managed to get her in the back garden when it was sunny with the children,” he said.

Mr French said some days his wife found it hard to cope so he bought her a puppy to cheer her up two days before her death. “It seemed to do the job,” he said.

But on September 18 his wife began drinking in the evening and had eight or nine pints of lager before going to bed.

Mr French said he woke in the night to find her trying to cut her wrists with the ring-pull from a Coke can. He took it off her, she said nothing and he went back to sleep.

When she awoke she felt ill and was sick after getting up. He thought it was the effects of the drink and she later went back to bed.

Her husband found her dead in bed later that day. Two empty bottles of newly prescribed pills were found nearby.

Asked if he thought his wife deliberately intended to end her life Mr French said: “I don’t think so. I don’t think she would have done it on purpose. She wouldn’t do it to the children.”

Pathologist Dr Anju Verghese said toxicology results showed Mrs French had a high blood concentration of a drug used to treat asthma and another one for severely agitated behaviour.

The level of the asthma treatment drug alone was potentially fatal. She said the combination of the drugs would have led to a cardiac arrest or a seizure.

Recording an open verdict, coroner Nicola Mundy said it was clear Mrs French took an overdose while her husband was asleep.

The coroner said she could not be wholly satisfied it was either a deliberate act or a “cry for help”.

Mrs French did not tell her husband what she had done and no suicide note was found.

“Although there was a long history of self-harm and she took an overdose in July there was no clear motive,” Ms Mundy said.