Family man died on friend's birthday trip to Perranporth

A family man suffered a catastrophic brain injury when he took drugs during a trip to Cornwall to celebrate a friend's birthday. Marcin Kotlowski, a construction worker who was undergoing training to become an Uber driver to better support his family financially, was discovered unconscious and not breathing on the floor of the caravan their group of friends had booked at Perran Sands holiday park in Perranporth in March.

His friend Pavel and others tried to bring Marcin back by carrying out CPR while the ambulance was on its way. Paramedics arrived 15 minutes later and took over as Marcin was in cardiac arrest.

Marcin and another friend who had flown in from Poland for Pavel's birthday bash and had also taken drugs were taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.

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While the friend recovered and was later discharged, Marcin's heart was also restarted, but by that time, his brain had been deprived of oxygen for a long time and he suffered from multiple organ failure as a result.

An inquest into the death of the 44-year-old dad-of-three Polish national from London held today in Truro (Thursday, November 14) heard how Marcin's wife and children were informed of the situation and made their way to Cornwall to be with him. The incident happened on March 11 this year with Marcin passing away from his unrecoverable brain injury on March 14.

His wife of 15 years, Agnieszka Kotlowska, told the inquest how the pair met while in London. She said that as a family they spent a lot of time together or with friends as they are a very sociable family.

In a statement read out in court, Mrs Kotlowska said Marcin was a great husband and a great dad who did all he could to raise their children well. She said he loved football and would often take one of their sons to football practice and cheer him on. She told the inquest how the family spent time doing up their home and garden, loved going out on walks, and took trips together.

"Marcin had a very positive outlook on life," Mrs Kotlowska said. "He loved to joke and make people laugh. He was kind and helpful and would help anyone. Marcin worked in the construction industry and for local councils and would go and visit tenants to help with the maintenance of their properties.

"He was a very competent worker and was well-liked by his colleagues and customers. He wanted to earn a bit more money by being an Uber driver on the side and was about to do some training for it."

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The inquest heard how Marcin and his friend Pavel, who also lives in London, went to pick up three other friends from Luton airport before driving down to Perranporth. All apart from Pavel started drinking on the way down. Mrs Kotlowska said Marcin had been excited about the trip as it had been his first outing with friends without his family since they got married.

She told the inquest that he told her the group had arrived in Cornwall that afternoon, then at 6pm he Facetimed her to show her and their children where he was. She said that as the connection was bad, it was a brief conversation. That was the last time she ever spoke to him.

She added: "I had no knowledge that he had ever taken drugs. We had a very open relationship and nothing led me to think that he'd take drugs. We don't go out that much or go to parties and we have always put looking after our children first. I don't believe that he was a regular drug user.

"I'm still in shock about what happened. His death has been heart-breaking for the children and me and it's taken a long time to adjust to life without him."

A postmortem and toxicology report confirmed the presence of cocaine, MDMA and other synthetic opiates, all of which can have a sedative effect on the body and can lead to heart problems and respiratory suppression. Marcin's medical cause of death was recorded as multiple organ failure from a mixed drugs overdose.

Assistant coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Stephen Covell said it would have been preferable if Marcin's friend who also ended up in hospital had given the police a statement before returning to London and then Poland to give a fuller picture about what happened that afternoon and evening in terms of who brought the drugs and how much people took.

He said: "We still don't know for certain what went on." However, Devon and Cornwall Police concluded that no third party was involved in Marcin's death nor that he had tried to take his own life.

Returning a drug-related death conclusion, Mr Covell said: "Some of the information is missing about what happened that afternoon, and it would have been better to have that information, but during that evening on March 11, Marcin took some drugs voluntarily, and this had a catastrophic effect on him.

"He suffered a cardiac arrest from the toxic effects from a combination of illicit drugs when on holiday with friends at a caravan park in Cornwall and died as a result of a brain injury after his brain was deprived of oxygen for a long time. He died surrounded by his family on March 14 at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro."

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