A FATHER-of-four died of cocaine use after falling ill while looking after his children at a trampoline park.

Salahuddeen Yusuf Salah, of Foxhouse Street, Blackburn, was 42 when he died at Royal Blackburn Hospital from a heart attack which doctors attributed to cocaine use.

At the time of his death, tributes were paid to the ‘kind-hearted’ man who 'always went out of his way to help others' and who worked with a charity to help orphans across the world. 

An inquest at Accrington Town Hall heard that the father-of-four had been with three of his children, his oldest daughter and two sons, on August 8 at Jump Works trampoline park in Accrington.

When the family arrived, his oldest daughter recalls that he started to feel ill and she told him to go outside and get some fresh air.

While he was outside, he was trembling, and told duty manager Rachel Spencer that he felt ‘funny and dizzy’ and was diabetic.

Ms Spencer saw him again inside and he had stopped trembling. However she later saw he was struggling again.

He told her he had not eaten so she brought him food and decided to call an ambulance.

While the ambulance was on its way, Salahuddeen, known as Sal, fell to the floor and started having a seizure.

Rachel updated the call handler and he was put into the recovery position.

His daughter took her two brothers and got them out of the way so that they could not see what was happening to their dad, then went back to check on him.

At this point, paramedics, including Charlotte Whittam, arrived and said that Mr Salah was conscious and showed very few symptoms of having had a seizure.

They got him in an ambulance and performed tests which showed him to have a slightly elevated heart rate. They took him to hospital and his children came to say goodbye.

While on the way, he told Ms Whittam that he had used cocaine on Friday, August 6.

When they arrived at the hospital, he was taken to a bay and he had another seizure about 15 minutes later, before going into cardiac arrest.

After over 30 minutes of CPR, he was declared dead.

Doctor Khalid Haq, of Royal Blackburn Hospital, declared cause of death was cocaine use, with a toxicology report confirming that there was evidence of cocaine use shortly before death at a fatal level, with some evidence of alcohol consumption.

A single wrap of what was later confirmed to be cocaine was found on him.

Coroner Mark Williams concluded that Mr Salah died of cocaine toxicity.

He said: “Mr Salahuddeen Salah has clearly consumed a quantity of cocaine that caused him to suffer some form of seizure which took place whilst at the trampoline park in Accrington.

“That resulted in an ambulance being called.

“During his treatment at the hospital, he had a further seizure and was found to have a wrap of white powder in his possession.

“He then went into cardiac arrest and passed away.”