A man died in hospital after being found unresponsive in his home, an inquest heard.
Ralph Borgia, also known as Ralph Jones and referred to as such during the proceedings, was found unresponsive and surrounded by drug paraphernalia at his home by a friend on February 26 last year.
The 40-year-old lived with his mother Nina Jones in Clos Y Wern, Brackla, Bridgend. Mrs Jones said she last saw her son putting out the recycling the night before and then assumed he had gone to bed.
An inquest into Mr Jones' death heard that the friend, known as Tilly, had found him unresponsive the next day and began CPR and called for Mrs Jones to ring for an ambulance.
The inquest heard Mr Jones’ sister, Crystal Jones, praised the “amazing” paramedics who attended the scene and treated their mother who had gone into a state of shock.
Mr Jones was transferred to the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend while his family followed in a car. He was taken to the resuscitation area where a doctor explained that Mr Jones would be left with brain damage if he were to survive.
Mr Jones was then transferred to the ICU where his family spent time with him before life support was turned off in line with the family’s wishes.
Coroner David Regan said that Mr Jones “passed away peacefully with his family present” at 4.35am on February 27.
A toxicology report found drugs including methadone, diazepam, cocaine, and morphine in samples of Mr Jones’ blood. Dr Esther Youd, forensic toxicologist, said it appeared that Mr Jones had “used a number of drugs prior to death.”
The inquest heard the family were aware that Mr Jones had “dabbled with drugs” and was on a prescribed methadone programme.
Dr Zelda Summers, a consultant psychiatrist for Swansea Bay Health Board, said: “Mr Jones’ diagnosis was being addressed in the community drug and alcohol team and was opiate-dependency syndrome.” She added that he continued to use heroin and street-sourced benzodiazepines intermittently.
At his last appointment on February 14 Mr Jones said he was using one to two 10lb bags of heroin on occasion as well as cannabis, the inquest heard.
Dr Summers said she had advised him to the risks and that he was tolerant of his methadone prescriptions, taking them as prescribed.
Mr Regan said the medical cause of Mr Jones’ death was aspiration pneumonia and mixed drug toxicity of methadone, diazepam, and flurazepam.
He said: “This is a death which was drug-related. There is no evidence before me that Mr Borgia in any way intended to end his life and therefore the appropriate conclusion is that the death was drug-related.
“I would wish to express my condolences to members of his family and my best wishes to them for the future.”
