A MUM-of-four died after using cocaine in a one-off decision, leaving behind her young children, her family says.
Holly Dakin, 29, died suddenly just weeks after finishing her health degree at Nottingham Trent University.
The mum-of-four was found dead on April 30, and an inquest into her death was opened early last month.
But, the findings of the inquest have shocked Holly’s parents, who discovered their daughter who “just wanted to help people” had taken cocaine before her sudden death.
Robert and Rosemary Dakin had said the heartbreaking news that the coroner’s conclusion found Holly’s death “drug-related” came as a shock.
Rosemary told Nottinghamshire Live: “All of us didn’t have a clue.”
Read more on cocaine
Holly’s boyfriend, Aaron White, 41, lived with her and the children and described her as “amazing, caring, kind, an amazing mum and girlfriend”.
Aaron said: “She didn’t take drugs. She went to the wrong place that night.
“The drug-taking that night was a one-off thing. We had planned for her 30th.”
The day before her death, Holly spent much of the day with her friend.
They apparently drank, ate, prepared for a holiday, and visited a tanning salon.
She then went to the home of her smallest child’s father, and stayed there.
At 8am the dad of the smallest child went to wake Holly and found she was not breathing, so quickly called for an ambulance.
Holly was sadly already dead.
The inquest at the Nottingham Council House had been called because there was an unnatural aspect to Holly’s death – relating to the cocaine and the impact it had on her heart.
Toxicology tests found Holly had almost twice the legal limit of alcohol in her system to drive a car, as well as cocaine and a product often used to cut cocaine.
The level of cocaine was not considered to be toxic.
This would all have happened in her sleep.
Coroner Bower
The inquest heard tests showed on the “balance of probabilities” what led to a “sudden cardiac event” was an irregular heartbeat.
The left side of Holly’s heart failed due to a blood clot in the main vessel, which feeds blood to the heart.
Holly had previously attended a hospital emergency department with chest pains but self-discharged.
Coroner Bower said it had been reported that cardiovascular disease is relatively common in young cocaine users, and the affects of cocaine are exasperated by alcohol use.
Miss Bower reassured the family that Holly’s death would have been sudden and “she would not have known anything about this process”.
Miss Bower said: “I can say Holly would not have know anything about it whatsoever; this would all have happened in her sleep.”
Detective Constable Ben Grayson, of Radford Road CID and the officer in the case, told the hearing: “From our point of view, in terms of the police investigation, it does not seem to suggest that Holly did not take what she took of her own free will.
“Therefore, it does hinder a police investigation in that respect”.
