The cause of a young mother's sudden death remains a mystery but her GP believes she may have suffered from an undetected heart condition.
Silhesha Chantel Sunderland, 22, was found dead in the bathroom of her home at around 11am, the night after she had been drinking with her partner Marc Scott and a friend on Boxing Day in 2020.
An inquest into her death heard post mortem toxicology tests found only a small amount of alcohol in her system and experienced Home Office pathologist Dr Alison Armour was unable to determine a cause of death when she carried out a post-mortem, reports Lancashire Live.
Reading from her report, area coroner James Newman said: "There was no evidence trauma or injury, nothing significant internally, no damage to the heart, no vomit in her airways, the bladder was normal and although there was a little bit of blood in the abdominal cavity but Dr Armour says that because of her age and general good health it was such a small amount that there is no reason it could have caused her death.
“Ultimately Dr Armour says she doesn’t know what caused her death.”
The trainee accountant, who had two-year-old twins, had complained about abdominal pains in the months leading up to her death, but blood tests and an ultrasound conducted by GP Dr Penny Parr in March found no abnormalities.
At the inquest on Friday, Dr Parr told the family she may have suffered from Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome, which is a cardiac arrest caused by an undetected heart condition.
She added: “I think it would be sensible for family members to have an ECG test to look at where the electrical current is passing through the heart and the direction it passes around the heart.
“It is possible that certain changes which you can see in a living heart might not be identifiable after death.”
During the inquest at Preston Coroner’s Court, the coroner concluded that Miss Sunderland died of natural causes.
“The post mortem could find no cause of death and an unnatural cause was ruled out so the only possibility appears to be an unidentified medical condition,” he added.
Miss Sunderland, who lived in the village of Bamber Bridge, leaves behind twins, Aliyah and Hugo.
She has been described as a "kind-hearted girl" and "brilliant mum" by her mother Vicky and "one in a million" by her partner Mr Scott.
