The mother of a heroin addict who died aged 25 said yesterday she was hopeful that the Senior Coroner would agree to her request for an inquest.

Lynn Spencer lost son Christopher on October 27 last year, after he collapsed at their Paget home, and she still has unanswered questions about how he died.

A coroner’s inquest — a fact-finding exercise with the aim of determining the cause of death — would allow Ms Spencer to seek answers from police, ambulance crew and medics, as well as other witnesses who were called.

“There are still a few questions that I would like to ask,” she said. “I guess the way to get them [the answers] is to have an audience with whoever is willing to answer them. It really would be a good thing to do. I would like an inquest.”

Senior Coroner Archibald Warner told The Royal Gazette last week that he assessed every sudden death investigated by police to determine if an inquest was necessary. He has held only four in the last six years and said he rarely found a need to have a public hearing.

He told this newspaper he had recently ordered an inquest into the suspected overdose death of Sharon Laverne Caines, who died in 2010, though the hearing has yet to be held.

In the case of Mr Spencer, a former reporter at The Royal Gazette and Mid-Ocean News, Mr Warner said he had not received the police file on the circumstances surrounding his death so couldn’t comment on whether he would order an inquest.

“I wouldn’t necessarily hold an inquest into every overdose,” he said. “We’ll see what happens when I get [the file]. It depends on the circumstances. I can’t say. I don’t know.

“When I see the investigation, when I read the papers, then I will see. It would be wrong for me to prejudge.”

Mr Warner said once the file was passed to him it “wouldn’t take long” to come to a decision, adding that he had never refused a family’s request for an inquest.

Ms Spencer, who waited for more than a year for the results of a postmortem drugs test carried out on her son due to a delay at the Government Laboratory, said that gave her hope.

She said she wished the police file would be passed to the Coroner quickly so she could know his decision soon.

“I’m just trying to not think about it any more but I can’t give up at this point,” said the bereaved mother.

Mr Spencer, who was trying to kick his heroin addiction, suffered chest pains in the days before his death and collapsed in his bedroom.

His mother dialled 911 when she got no response after knocking on his bedroom door; police and an ambulance attended the home soon after.

Mr Spencer was declared dead an hour later after being taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

His mother recently met with hospital bosses to discuss the care her son received but was told that several of her questions couldn’t be answered.

She said the managers she met, including quality and risk management vice-president Preston Swan, could not tell her what time Mr Spencer was put on the ambulance to go to KEMH or whether any care was given to him on the journey.

They said the 911 call was received at 6.13pm and the ambulance arrived at 6.22pm. Mr Spencer arrived at the emergency room at 6.47pm and was declared dead at 7.21pm.

Ms Spencer was told the ambulance crew could not find a pulse on her son and did not administer the potentially life-saving opiate antidote Narcan for that reason.

Once at the hospital, she was told that “no life-saving measures were used”.

Ms Spencer said: “They said he was hooked up to a machine that showed no heartbeat.”

She has been told by Coroner’s officer Travis Powell that Mr Spencer’s death was caused by a pulmonary oedema, meaning fluid on the lungs.

Although traces of drugs, including cannabis and the heroin derivatives morphine and codeine, were found in his system, there was not enough for him to have overdosed.

In October, the Department of Health told Ms Spencer to expect a telephone call from the pathologist who conducted the autopsy to explain the results. The call has yet to come.

Neither Sergeant Powell nor Bermuda Hospitals Board responded to questions by press time last night.

ends