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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Robin Cottle & Kara O'Neill

Mum sent joke 'are you alive?' text moments before finding daughter dead on bed

A mother jokingly text messaged her daughter asking "are you alive" before finding the her dead on her bed, an inquest heard.

A coroner was told that sales assistant Genina Monaghan had earlier refused to visit the doctor for fear of 'getting into trouble' for having not lost weight.

Genina had originally taken the day off work to watch the band My Chemical Romance perform a concert in Milton Keynes - which was later cancelled due to the pandemic.

Believing her daughter was having "a bed day" after the gig was postponed, Maria Marshall texted her at 4pm to say "are you alive."

Tragically, the mother walked into her daughter's bedroom soon after to find the 22-year-old sprawled across her bed in pyjamas, with foam around her mouth.

Emergency services rushed to Edinburgh Drive, Didcot, Oxfordshire, before paramedic Naomi Pain confirmed that the young woman had died just after 5pm on June 18 last year.

Genina had been unwell in the weeks before her death (HNP Newsdesk/Hyde News & Pictures Ltd)

Devastated mother Maria Marshall told the inquest in Oxford: "In the weeks before her death Genina was sick several times. She told me it was down to her gallbladder issues.

She had been throwing up every now and then due to her gallstones, the most recent was on June 16.

"She had not sought any treatment as she did not want to have a conversation about losing weight with her GP - it upset her.

Genina had taken the day off for a concert, which had then been postponed (HNP Newsdesk/Hyde News & Pictures Ltd)

"The day before her death she had a sore stomach, she was on the sofa and I had gone to the shop because she had asked for chocolate. Every now and then she called me into the living room to pat and stroke her head."

Feeling unwell, Genina had headed for a shower and bed just after 10pm before texting her mother: "Could you get the landing light, thank you, love you".

Mrs Monaghan went on: "The next morning I had a delivery man deliver decorating stuff for Genina's bedroom and at some point I went to town. When I came back she was still in her room which was not unusual.

Genina was pronounced dead shortly after her mother called for a paramedic (HNP Newsdesk/Hyde News & Pictures Ltd)

"At 4.45pm I turned on the oven for dinner and I sent a text saying 'are you alive' thinking she was just having a bed day.

"I found her lying on her back unresponsive, I rang 999 but I knew she had passed away," the mother added.

The coroner heard that Genina had not wanted to visit her doctor about her stomach pains as she did not want to be told off for not losing weight.

Assistant coroner for Oxfordshire, Joanna Coleman, concluded that the young woman had died from an accidental overdose, after a post mortem examination found she had died from Propranolol toxicity.

"It was a drug-related death," the coroner concluded.

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