Yahoo News Woman, 22, woke up with a 'banging headache' and tragically died hours later
A young woman, described as "funny, cheeky" and "the life and soul of the party", tragically passed away after accidentally overdosing on morphine while trying to alleviate a severe headache, an inquest heard.
Grace Lewis Shaw, a 22-year-old carer, was found unresponsive at her mother's home on the morning of November 24 last year. She had been seen sleeping soundly on the sofa by her mother, who later raised the alarm with emergency services upon returning from an appointment to find Grace hadn't moved.
A post-mortem examination found her cause of death was morphine toxicity with pneumonia. At her inquest yesterday (May 1), it was heard that Grace suffered from insomnia and persistent headaches, and had a cold on the day before she died.
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It is believed Grace, from Liverpool, took the morphine which had been prescribed to her mum in an attempt to relieve her pain, the ECHO reports. "I truly believe that she has woken up with a banging headache, gone into the kitchen and grabbed the tablets to get rid of the headache. It has just been an accident," her dad Michael said. "That's what I truly believe."
Handing down a conclusion of death by misadventure, coroner Anita Bhardwaj said: "It's unclear as to why Grace has taken the excessive amount of morphine, however taking everything into account, I think it's more likely than not she has taken it for the relief of pain, not appreciating the consequences her actions.
"Whether she knew she was taking such a high dose, we will never know."
Paying tribute to his daughter, Michael said: "She was the life and soul of the party. She would do anything for anyone. She made plans to go to and clean her mum's house up for Christmas just before, so she was making plans for the future."
He added: "We just want people to know the type of person she was: funny, cheeky, a larger than life character. She lived her life to the full. She was just a normal 22-year-old girl."
Her step-mum Olesia said: "She loved spending Sundays with all the family. The roast dinner was always gone in a couple of minutes! Every single person from the family is proud of her. She had a smile that would light up a room."
The family added they wanted to extend their thanks to Break Free, a drug and alcohol support service which helped Grace overcome a cannabis addiction before she died. Michael said: "We want to think Break Free for all the work that they did with her before. They were fantastic. She had her smile back and there was a glint in her eye again. Five months down the line, they are still in contact with us, just checking up and making sure that we're OK."
