Man died after taking 15 ecstasy tabs

[Posted: Fri 15/07/2005 - www.irishhealth.com]

A 36-year-old man died after taking around 15 ecstasy tablets over the course of just a few hours, an inquest has heard.

The inquest into the death of James O'Donovan from Cobh, Co Cork, heard that in November of last year, he had gone to a house party in Cobh at around 1am. He was seen by other people at the party taking a large amount of ecstasy tablets between 1am and around 5.30am, when he started to become ill.

A friend of the deceased and witness at the inquest, Alan Moran, said he had become concerned at the rate which Mr O'Donovan was taking the tablets. Mr Moran rang an ambulance for Mr O'Donovan after he became ill.

The inquest was told that an autopsy of Mr O'Donovan revealed ecstasy levels of 5.3mgs per millilitre of blood. The fatal range was found to be between 0.6 and 2.8mgs.

The autopsy also revealed that Mr O'Donovan's liver, kidney and myocardium - the muscles around the heart - had started to rapidly decompose, due to the high temperature of his body at the time of his death.

Cork City Coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, extended her sympathies to the family of Mr O'Donovan and said that the case highlighted the dangers of taking ecstasy. She returned a verdict of death by misadventure.