An “amazing mum” told her husband “I love you” before going to sleep and tragically never waking up after being found unresponsive in bed. Deanne Clarke, 41, from Wallasey, Merseyside “adored her kids”, an inquest heard into her death on January 7 this year.
Her husband Allan said: “She was very strong – stronger than she thought. In her work life, she came out of school with nothing and worked really hard to get diplomas. She had a lot of strength and willpower. She was a really clever woman. She just didn’t think she was.”
An inquest into the death of Ms Clarke, a social care manager and mum of four, was held at Gerard Majella Courthouse in Kirkdale on April 15. It found she had died of an accidental overdose of painkillers following weeks of “unbearable” pain and insomnia caused by fibromyalgia, a chronic condition which causes pain, fatigue, and sleep problems.
Her husband Allan Clarke said he believed his wife had fallen into “a deep sleep” shortly before she passed away. “I said ‘I love you’, (she said) ‘I love you too’, and then she laid down,” he said.
“Within minutes she had gone into a really deep sleep. It sounded like she was snoring slightly and I thought if I moved her pillow it would clear her airway. I moved her pillow and her head felt quite heavy. She went quiet. Her breathing seemed quite clear. That night she was lying quite comfortably and peacefully.”
Mr Clarke got up at 6.30am on January 7 and took one of his children to school, the court heard. When he returned he found his wife still in bed, unresponsive, at around 8.55am, reported the Liverpool Echo.
He said: “I thought she was in a deep sleep and had been all night, and I just left her. It was January and it was dark. It wasn’t until the schools were closed and I came to tell her, I looked at her and I knew.”
A post-mortem found fatally high levels of prescribed painkillers in her system. However, it could not be determined how or when she had taken the pills, as Mr Clarke said she was usually “very meticulous” about her doses.
Coroner Joe Hart said: “Deanne had presented to her GP on January 6 with a chest infection, significant sleep problems and significant ongoing difficulties with pain.
“I find that pain was and must have been unbearable – even putting a T-shirt on would cause this lady very significant pain. I find that she was very careful lady where it came to her medication.
“This is a lady who was very much integrated with her family, very much making plans for the future. But I also find that at some stage over the course of January 6 into January 7, Deanne consumed a greater than therapeutic amount of a painkilling drug which had been prescribed to her.
“However I have heard absolutely no evidence as to how it come to be that Deanne took more painkillers than she was supposed to… and there was absolutely no evidence that this was deliberately taken at all.”
He added: “This seems to have been simply an accident. However careful Deanne had been in the past, it’s impossible to know what the impact of days, weeks and months of poor sleep, pain and poor vision can do.” He made a short narrative verdict which ruled the mum had died from an excessive dose of painkillers, complicated by pneumonia.
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