A WOMAN who died of a chest infection while camping near Ullswater may have ‘shaken it off’ if she had been in better overall health.
Donna Cerise, 39, of Leeds, was suffering from blocked arteries and a possible tumour on her liver when she died of bronchial pneumonia at the Waterside House Campsite, while holidaying with a friend.
“Overall her medical condition wasn’t very good for a 39-year-old,” said coroner, Ian Smith, at an inquest into Ms Cerise’s death.
”When she got an infection it was going to be more difficult to get rid of than for a healthy 39-year-old.
“An infection you’d expect most people to shake off sooner or later, but she didn’t shake it off and sadly died.”
The court heard Ms Cerise had been sick on June 14 so the following day decided to ‘rest’ in her tent.
PC Andrew Holliday, of Cumbria Police, said the day was ‘miserable and wet’ and during the afternoon Ms Cerise ‘took a turn for the worse’.
“Her friend had decided a couple of times to get her out of the tent to take exercise and get fluids down her,” said PC Holliday.
“Then at one point she heard her shouting for the dogs to shut up and realised she was in distress and needed medical help.”
Paramedics and the Great North Air Ambulance Service attended, but Ms Cerise was pronounced dead at the Howtown campsite.
A post-mortem examination later found her arteries were ‘hardening’ and one had become 75 per cent blocked.
She also had areas of damage on her liver that the pathologist said could have been the beginnings of a tumour.
Her civil partner, Clare Thompson, who attended the inquest, said Ms Cerise was a heavy drinker and took large amounts of codeine on a daily basis.
But Mr Smith said she had fluid on her lungs and it was this that had killed her.
“She died as a consequence of natural causes,” he said.
“She died of a very nasty and severe infection that came out as bronchial pneumonia.”
The friend she had holidayed with, Angela Dennis, did not attend the inquest.
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