A 'party loving' 21-year-old drank himself to death while watching the Eurovision Song Contest with his mum, an inquest heard.
Kameron Chatwell died just days after his birthday following an evening of heavy drinking.
Mr Chatwell had drank a bottle and a half of wine and four bottles of Desperados, a tequila-flavoured beer, as he watched TV with Micaela Owen at her home in Barry, Wales Online reports.
He left in the early hours of May 19 in a taxi back to his aunt’s house where he was living – but was brought back to his mum’s home after he fell asleep and was unable to give the taxi driver his full address.
His mum and her partner took him inside and put him in the recovery position as he continued to sleep in the hallway.
An inquest in Pontypridd heard his mum found him unresponsive at 8am and called an ambulance.
He died hours later at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Ms Owen told the inquest her son had studied a foundation degree in computer science at Aberystwyth University in 2016 when he started drinking heavily.
She said he drank so much that it sparked concern among his friends and family.
He also used drugs such as MDMA which would result in him often missing his classes.
After his course he went on to study media at Swansea University but left after his first term and returned to live with his mum and started working full-time at McDonald’s.
Ms Owen said his party lifestyle continued and her son carried on drinking regularly with friends which caused a rift in their relationship.
She said she had tried to talking to her son about his drinking but he would “walk off or ignore you” so the both decided he should move in with his aunt, Tammi Owens, who lived a few minutes away.
But Mr Chatwell continued to drink and would take cocaine which he bought fortnightly as well as unprescribed Xanax pills, the inquest heard.
Speaking about the fateful night Ms Owen said: “He called me at about 9.30pm and came over at about 9.50pm.
“When he arrived I didn’t smell alcohol so I didn’t think he had been drinking before he arrived. He brought a bottle of rose wine and four Desperados. He drank them and had two glasses out of my bottle. This was the first time we had drank together in about two years.
“When he left he was tipsy but he was in good spirits and seemed coherent. I have definitely seen him worse before.
“About 40 minutes later he came back. The taxi driver said he had been to my sister’s road but he didn’t know which house it was and Kameron had fallen asleep.
“Myself and my other half tried to get him out of the taxi but it wasn’t working – he’s a big lad.
“The taxi driver took over with my partner. They managed to get him out of the car and put him onto a blanket. I paid the taxi driver and we carried Kameron inside.
“When we got inside we decided to leave him in the hallway because we couldn’t carry him. I put him into the recovery position and put a pillow behind his head in case he vomited.
“He was fast asleep and was snoring which was very normal for him. I assumed he was just drunk and snoring. I’d seen him fast asleep and snoring after drinking millions of times.
“I slept on the sofa in the room next door and I could hear him snoring. I fell asleep at about 4am. When I woke up the next morning it was something past eight and I realised straight away that I couldn’t hear him snoring.
“I went to look and knew straightaway that something wasn’t right. His skin had changed – it looked blue.
“I was checking for a pulse but I couldn’t find one. I put my hands on his chest to feel for him breathing in and out and I couldn’t feel anything.
“I ran upstairs to get my partner and dialled 999. They told me to begin CPR and my partner ran to go and find a defibrillator.”
Mr Chatwell was in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived but they managed to bring his heart rate back to normal and he was taken to hospital by ambulance.
He was transferred to the critical care unit but died later that day.
Following a post-mortem examination a pathologist gave a likely medical cause of death of “aspiration pneumonia with alcohol levels of 109mg per decilitre [of blood]”.
Coroner Aled Gruffydd accepted the cause of death and recorded a narrative conclusion.
He said: “Kameron gained good GCSEs and went on to study A-levels and then went off to Aberystwyth University to study for a foundation degree in computer science.
"It was while living in Aberystwyth Kameron developed a taste for the party lifestyle.
“Kameron would drink excessive amounts of alcohol and this continued when he left university.
“Kameron died from aspiration pneumonia and alcohol toxicity.
"He consumed an excessive amount of alcohol during the 18th and 19th of May.”
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