Blackpool woman, 24, took fatal drugs overdose after mental health struggle

A young Blackpool woman with a history of mental illness died two days after taking a deadly cocktail of prescription drugs.
Blackpool town hallBlackpool town hall
Blackpool town hall

Chloe Ashworth, 24, was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital in an unconscious state on December 6 last year. A coroner's court heard it was believed she had taken a large amount of medication beforehand.

Her condition deteriorated and she died on December 8.

A post mortem carried out by Blackpool Vic doctor Mark Sissons found she died of multi-organ failure caused by an overdose of a number of different drugs.

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The court heard that, in 2020, Miss Ashworth had lived for some time in Newbarn Supported Housing in Rochdale. She was under the care of the Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, and then the Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust when she moved to Blackpool in September.

Her stepfather Ian Brown said: "The most important thing, in my wife's mind, is Newbarn itself, because Newbarn actually neglected Chloe. Newbarn was supposed to give her two nights of support a week. Then it went down to one, and then it went down to no support overnight. Within Newbarn Chloe should have been given her tablets at 10pm. We got a phonecall (from Chloe) at 12.30am saying they had not come with her tablets yet."

Coroner Alan Wilson said Newbarn Supported Housing had not been approached in the course of the investigation, however, as Miss Ashworth's residence there dated back several months before her death, which was beyond the scope that would usually be examined at an inquest.

He agreed to write to the service with the option of attending the inquest, which was scheduled for December 16 and 17.

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He said: "There may be criticisms to be made by (Miss Ashworth's) parents in relation to her care at that point, but not criticisms that go into how she actually died. The inquest is to really focus on how Miss Ashworth died. There are times her family may have had issues about how she was looked after previously, but the time that has passed between that time and the time she has arrived in Blackpool has been too long."

Mr Brown said: "I think Newbarn has got a lot of questions to be asked."

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