01 February 2025 , 19:36
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Stoke-on-Trent pathologists found traces of several different drugs in 37-year-old Lindsey Owen’s body, and concluded she fell into a deep, drug-induced sleep before she died
A "kind" mum-of-four died while tending to her young child while she was unwell in an NHS hospital, with horrified staff discovering her body in a bed next to her daughter’s.
Lindsey Owen passed away at her daughter’s bedside in a private room at the Royal Stoke University Hospital children’s ward in Stoke-on-Trent last May. The 37-year-old mum’s lifeless body was discovered by hospital staffers carrying out a routine check on her child, who found her curled on a fold-up hospital bed.
An inquest has since determined the mum had taken a cocktail of drugs before her death, with forensic pathologists concluding she died as a result of "mixed-drug intoxication". The inquest heard the mum, who lived on Bold Street, in Northwood, had been trying to wean herself off substances, with coroners hearing she had been using from a young age.
Lindsey was found in the children’s ward of Royal Stoke University Hospital, in Stoke-on-Trent ( Image: Stoke Sentinel/BPM Media)
The inquest heard that ward staff had readied three bottles of methadone to prescribe the mum to help wean her off drugs, but it was suggested she may have used before her death. CCTV showed the mum exiting the hospital the day prior, during which the inquest heard she was suspected of having taken drugs.
Forensic pathologist Brett Lockyer found the mum had traces of six drugs in her system when she died, all of which "contributed to her death" by suppressing her breathing and forcing her into a deep sleep. The mum, the coroner said, would not have "known anything about what was happening to her".
Mr Lockyer said: "I gave the cause of death as mixed-drug intoxication. The drugs which have contributed to her death included a mixture of diamorphine or heroin, methadone, gabapentin, mirtazapine, codeine, and diazepam. All of those drugs together, they would have acted together in order to cause her death by suppressing her respiratory system and causing her to go into a deep sleep.
"Lindsey would not have known anything about what was happening to her. She would have just wandered off into a very deep sleep and then passed away while she was sleeping." Family and friends of the mum have since paid their respects, and set up a fundraiser in her memory.
The GoFundMe page included a heartfelt tribute from Lyndsey’s sister Claudia, who remembered her sibling as a proud parent who "have done anything to protect the people she loved". She wrote on the page: "She would have given her last penny to anyone in need. She was truly a kind person who didn’t deserve to leave the world this soon."