
34 year-old pregnant mum-of-six collapsed and died after taking hard substance, an inquest heard.
Lindsey Ann Hughes, was 13 weeks pregnant with a boy when she fell in her kitchen in Bangor, North Wales.
She was rushed to hospital where she died almost two weeks later.
An inquest heard the mum had broncho-pneumonia, which caused her to collapse and led to respiratory failure.
Benzodiazepine, a drug used to treat as anxiety, seizures, and for alcohol withdrawal, was also found in her system, North Wales Live reports.
Dewi Pritchard said at Lindsey’s inquest held at Caernarfon Coroner that an “abnormally high level eight times over the level for driving” of cocaine was found in her system.
He said:
“Cocaine damages the heart by killing off patches of heart tissue and causes a tightening of the vessels.
“Even low levels of cocaine can cause catastrophic results and repeat use causes more and more damage.”
He added it would have contributed to her death.
“If she had not taken cocaine in the past the probability is that she would have survived the broncho-pneumonia, but we cannot be sure.
“Because of the broncho-pneumonia she died of natural causes, this is not a drug death, the cocaine contributed but did not ultimately cause her death.”
At the time of Lindsey’s death, her friend Helen Evans described her as “full of life” and a “devoted mother”.
A post-mortem examination revealed Lindsey had pupil damage to her heart that is known as cardiac fibrosis and it can be caused by chronic cocaine use.