Mum with 'heart of gold' died aged 39 after collapsing while cooking dinner

A mum with a 'heart of gold' died after collapsing while making dinner, an inquest heard.

Emma Allen, 39, said she had been struggling to breathe throughout the day on November 25, 2020.

A hearing at Manchester Coroners' Court was told she was later found to have had levels heroin and methadone in her system.

READ MORE:'High-flyer', 21, took his own life minutes after Deloitte sack him over Zoom

The waitress had been busy running errands, including dropping her step daughter off at college, that day.

Throughout the afternoon, she complained she was having difficulty breathing.

An ambulance was called shortly after 5.30pm, when Ms Allen was cooking dinner. The call handler marked it as a 'category two' incident, the court heard.

A second call was then made at 5.43pm. The incident was then escalated to 'category one'.

In a statement read to the court, Ms Allen's mother Janine Metcalfe claimed paramedics 'got lost on the estate'.

"When they got to the house, they couldn’t save her," she added.

Shortly after 6pm, when paramedics reached her home on Headingley Drive, Ms Allen's loved ones were found attempting CPR.

She was rushed to Manchester Royal Infirmary, before being pronounced dead at 6.40pm.

A post mortem concluded Ms Allen died as a result of a cardiopulmonary arrest.

A toxicology report found evidence of heroin and methadone in her system, which doctors said would have been a 'compressant on her respiratory system'.

“The use of the drugs combined would have lead to a compression of her respiratory system causing her to have difficulty with her breathing," a statement from paramedic Mr Balan said.

"She then went into a cardiopulmonary arrest."

Emma already suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)