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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Alahna Kindred

'I’m a coroner and I’m still surprised by the unusual ways some people die '

A coroner has shared some of the most baffling cases he's come across when trying to find out how someone has died.

Dr James Adeley deals with about 4,000 fatalities a year as a senior coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen.

He investigates the reasons why some people pass away and says he still comes across cases that leave him scratching his head.

One unusual case he worked on was of a woman who died after accidentally strangling herself when her pyjama top got caught in the oven.

At the inquest into the death of Jackie Cottrill, 52, he said he had “never come across such an unusual case” in his 20 years as a coroner.

One case Dr Adeley came across was a sad set of circumstances with a bath tub (Getty Images)

Dr Adeley started his career as an ear, nose and throat surgeon before leaving medicine in 1993.

He then went on to requalify as a lawyer, before becoming a coroner nearly two decades ago.

He told The Sun : “It’s the best job in the world. It is helping people at a terrible time in their lives get through a process as easy as possible while providing them with an explanation as to how their loved one came by their death."

Another sad case Dr Adeley came across was someone dying from serotonin syndrome (Getty Images)

Dr Adeley and his team are starring in an upcoming Channel 5 documentary that pulls the curtain back on how they do their jobs from ordering a post-mortem, getting witness statements and medical records, or holding an inquest.

One particular case in the documentary features a cause of death that Dr Adeley has never seen before - serotonin syndrome.

It happens when the body has too much of the chemical - which is known as the "happy hormone" - and is usually caused by a mix of antidepressants and amphetamines medications.

Dr Adeley said: “I’ve been doing this job for 18 years now. I’ve never come across serotonin syndrome before. This is a first.

“It’s the very unusual reaction between a prescribed drug and a social drug.

"The body heats up until the brain gets so hot that it doesn’t function and you collapse and die."

In another mystery case, a man was found dead in a bath full of water with the tap still running.

A concerned neighbour raised the alarm last December for Andrew Miles, 48, who lived alone in Skelmersdale, Lancs.

DS Sean Cloherty from Lancashire Police said in the documentary: “I looked at the incident report as it came in and just felt that it might be suspicious given the circumstances.

“He was lying partially submerged in the bath with his head under the water and his right leg over the side of the bath.

“There was an electric shower in the premises and the shower head had been pulled off and was in the bath with him.”

In the documentary, it comes out that the man had a rare, unknown heart condition that caused him to fall into the bath and drown Dr Adeley described it as a “very unusual and very tragic set of circumstances”.

Cause of Death airs on Monday, October 19th at 9pm on Channel 5 .

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