Death of Eastbourne man after cardiac arrest

Paul Robey died in hospital on January 26 this year after suffering a cardiac arrest three days before at the Halcyon Hotel on South Cliff.

An inquest at Eastbourne Town Hall on Thursday (October 29), heard Mr Robey, a carpenter, had a long history of drug problems, and was also in the late stages of kidney failure.

On January 23, Lisa Summersgill, who was staying in the room next to Mr Robey in the hotel, answered her door to him telling her he was feeling unwell. He collapsed shortly after from a cardiac arrest, the inquest heard.

Mr Robey was then taken to hospital where he was transferred to the intensive treatment unit following a CT scan. Blood tests showed his cardiac arrest was caused by drug use - specifically heroin and opioids.

Dr James Evans said that 72 hours after being admitted, Mr Robey hadn’t woken up and his condition was deteriorating, so doctors decided to withdraw life support.

The inquest heard Mr Robey had had problems with drugs since his mid 20s and would often end up in hospital. As well as this, he was in and out of prison. Most recently he pleaded guilty to being in possession of nine wraps of heroin and was given a six month conditional discharge.

He had spoken of worsening anxiety with his GP, and engaged with STAR too - the drug and alcohol recovery service for East Sussex.

The inquest heard his death was due to multi organ failure, brought on by a cardiac arrest, which was caused by substance abuse.

East Sussex coroner Alan Craze ruled that Mr Robey’s death was due to dependence on drugs.