'The hardest thing' - dad's agony over tragic death of son, 20, after heart failure

A coroner told a grieving dad that "losing a child is the hardest thing anyone can experience" following the death of his 20-year-old son.

Paramedics were called to Frankie Cunningham's home in Poulton-le-Fylde in the early hours of July 3 this year after his mum found him unresponsive in his room.

Frankie, who had long-standing mental health and drug addiction issues, had been in cardiac arrest for around 20 minutes before the arrival of a first responder. Recognising that "time was of the essence", the first responder flagged down a passing ambulance, and while medics managed to get Frankie's heart started again he remained "deeply unconscious".

Frankie then suffered a further cardiac arrest but paramedics managed to resuscitate him before he was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital. However, doctors discovered that Frankie had suffered a hypoxic brain injury, and life-sustaining treatment was withdrawn before he died with his family around him on the afternoon of July 5.

An inquest held today (Wednesday November 20) at Blackpool Town Hall heard that Frankie had talked about feeling suicidal following the sudden death of his friend George from a drugs overdose.

In the weeks before his death Frankie told mental health practitioners that he "wanted to see his friend rather than live", however, there was no clear evidence that Frankie had intended to take his own life, and he had described taking "as many" painkillers as he could in order to get "as high as possible".

The inquest heard that Frankie, who was born in Surrey, had spent time living in Bali, Singapore and Australia due to his dad's job. He started experiencing mental health issues from the age of 12 and later became addicted to painkillers.

"He really struggled in his late teenage years and his mum's own mental health was poor," Frankie's dad Andy said. "The ability to get hold of these prescription drugs off the internet is dreadful."

Assistant Coroner Margaret Taylor added: "What's more frightening is that people have no idea what they are taking. you are told it's one thing but you have no idea."

Despite expressing thoughts of suicide Frankie had told mental health practitioners that he was able to keep himself safe. He had not left a note and had given "no indication" that he intended to take his own life.

In her conclusion the coroner said: "I do not believe, on balance, that Frankie intended to end his life when he took that medication and my conclusion will be one of a drug-related death."

After Frankie's death, his dad raised hundreds of pounds for drug, alcohol and mental health charity WithYou in his son's memory. On the GoFundMe page Andy wrote: "Frankie suffered from poor mental health like thousands of young people.

"Help from CAMHS was sporadic, some poor care and some outstanding care. It was a bit of a lottery and thousands of families will agree with our experience, Its enough for me to say that there still isn't adequate help out there for young people and it should be.

"We Are With You work with people on their own goals, whether that’s staying safe, making small changes or stopping an unwanted habit altogether. By providing people support in a way that’s right for them either face to face, in their local service, community or online.

"A donation in memory of Frank, will we hope, go on to make some positive differences in another young person's life."