Tragic mum dies after drink binge


11 December 2003 11:48

A WOMAN was found dead with her three-year-daughter asleep in her lap months after splitting with her husband.

An inquest heard 37-year-old Kay Eastwick died from alcohol poisoning at the home she shared with her husband at The Old Bakery, Cock Street, Barford.

She had very high levels of alcohol in her blood, nearly six times the legal drink drive limit.

Mrs Eastwick was found sitting on the sofa in the lounge daughter Bethany, now four, cradled in her arms.

Her husband Kevin, a barrister, made the devastating discovering.

The inquest heard that Mrs Eastwick had had problems with alcohol for several years. A post mortem revealed that the former Norwich Crown Prosecution Service receptionist had 474mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal drink drive limit is 80mg.

Deputy coroner Jacqueline McClay heard the alcohol intake was enough to cause a coma or unconsciousness, as well as respiratory and heart failure.

Mrs Eastwick had been prescribed Prozac and had seen her doctor numerous times in the months before her death and had been feeling extremely low because of family problems and the split with her husband.

The inquest heard the couple had separated in June this year when Mrs Eastwick had moved out of the family home. She had returned before her death.

Mr Eastwick said his wife had been tired and upset with a lot on her mind but had seemed okay and was looking towards the future and hoping to move into a housing association property with her daughter.

"She just complained that she was really tired and I didn't think anything of it," he said.

He left the house on the morning of her death at 7.30am and texted her during the day but received no response. He arrived home at 4.30pm and shortly afterwards found his wife was sitting on the sofa with her head to one side.

At the time of Mrs Eastwick's death no pill bottles or alcohol was found near her body.

But about 10 days later her husband found an empty vodka bottle in the wardrobe of the room she had been staying in.

Mr Eastwick said his wife's problems with alcohol had come and gone, depending on how happy or unhappy she was feeling.

But he said she never indicated she was so unhappy she would take her own life and believed was too strong-minded to have intended to take such action.

His wife's GP, Dr Kate Grantham, of Wymondham Medical Partnership, said Mrs Eastwick had been feeling low and thought she was drinking too much but said in recent months was doing well and had managed to stop drinking and accept alcohol was not the way to deal with her problems.

Deputy coroner Mrs McClay recorded a verdict of misadventure.

She said Mrs Eastwick's death was tragic: "Although Mrs Eastwick does appear to have been feeling low and going through a bad period in her life and she obviously had problems there is no evidence to suggest that she intended taking her own life."

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