A father who tried to quit his historic habits to reunite with his son was found dead slumped on the sofa in his living room, an inquest heard.
Ian Everington, 54, of Wesley Street, Ilkeston, had been living in shared accommodation run by P3 Housing, a homelessness charity.
His housemate saw Mr Everington two hours prior to his death in the early hours of January 31, 2021, Derbyshire Live reports.
He was slumped on the sofa but his housemate just assumed he had fallen asleep, before realising the severity of the situation.
Described by his mum as "quite positive" in the weeks leading up to his death, Mr Everington had struggled with alcohol dependency and drug abuse through out his life.
Mr Everington had a history of using using illegal drugs, such as heroin and amphetamine but at the time of his death had no illicit substances in his system.
A toxicology analysis after his death, found a mix of prescription drugs in Mr Everington's system which he had been prescribed for pain relief and addiction management.
However, the report also showed that there were prescription drugs that Mr Everington wasn't actually prescribed.
The inquest heard how he had bought some prescription drugs off of the street.
In November 2020, Mr Everington sought to establish a better connection and "mend bridges" with his son by reducing his dependency on alcohol and drugs.
Having a better relationship with his son was described at a "motivating force" for Mr Everington and the court was told that he "had told various people involved about it".
The hearing was told that in the weeks leading up to his death on January 31, 2021, Mr Everington had been successfully reducing his alcohol intake and that his attendance at appointments was "the best it had ever been."
A post mortem found that Mr Everington's medical cause of death was a combined toxic effect of excessive ingestion of prescription drugs.
Assistant Coroner Sophie Lomas concluded that Mr Everington's death was a drug-related death.
Speaking about her son, Valerie Everington said: "I hadn't seen him in over 12 months because of the pandemic, but I spoke over the phone.
"He seemed quite positive. It sounded like he was settled down, his support worker said he'd never seen him so good."
In reference to her son's passing Ms Everington said: "At least it was peaceful."
Mr Everington's inquest was held at Derby Coroner's Court on February 23.
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