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Inquest hears Limerick student died after consuming 'lethal' amount of alcohol

03 Dec

A VERDICT of misadventure was recorded at the inquest of a young University of Limerick student who died after he consumed a ‘lethal’ amount of alcohol at his home in the city. The body of 18-year-old Patrick Conway (pictured) was discovered at his on-campus accommodation at Kilmurry Student Village shortly after 7pm on January 28 last. The engineering student, who was originally from County Mayo, had returned to Limerick the previous weekend following the easing of some Covid-19 restrictions. Deep sadness at heartbreaking passing of 'bright and kind' University of Limerick student Coroner John McNamara was told the alarm was raised by Mr Conway’s housemate who found him unresponsive. “He was motionless in his bed – similar to the way we left him in the morning,” he told gardai. The inquest was told Mr Conway and several other students had been socialising at the house the previous night and that he was put to bed at around 6am. In their depositions, the other students outlined the various comings and goings during the night. While some alcohol was consumed throughout the night, they described how Mr Conway consumed a full 75cl bottle of vodka without a mixer ‘very quickly’ and without warning. Being questioned by Mr Conway’s mother, each of the students insisted that while efforts were made to “make him get sick” afterwards they did not have any specific concerns for Patrick’s wellbeing. “He was drunk but he wasn’t slurring his words,” said one student while another said: “He was completely alert and conscious, there was no reason to be concerned.” Pathologist, Dr Gabor Laskai, said the concentration of alcohol in Patrick’s system was within the “toxic to lethal” range and that alcohol intoxication was the cause of death. He said there were no other significant findings and that he did not find any evidence that he had vomited. Returning a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, Mr McNamara commented that nothing he said would help Patrick’s family deal with their grief. “He was obviously a very popular guy who looked out for others. It’s very unfortunate that he drank a bottle of vodka over one or two fell swoops.” Noting the evidence of the other students, he added: "There was nothing realistically they could have done, nobody wanted this outcome.” Both Mr McNamara and Inspector Pat Brennan expressed their condolences to Mr Conway's family.