A DRUG user with a fear of hospitals died after bleeding out from an injection point near his groin, a coroner has concluded.

Christopher Howarth, 43, was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after he had soaked two bath towels full of blood from his injured left leg, dying shortly after he arrived.

An inquest at Accrington Town Hall heard how the family called paramedics to the house on Heyhead Street, Brierfield, at 10.25pm on August 3, 2021, after a vein ‘popped’ in his leg and they could not control the bleeding.

His mother was insistent on calling the ambulance after he had refused to go the day before due to a fear developed after a number of relatives had died at Royal Blackburn.

When paramedics arrived, his girlfriend was putting pressure on the bleed, which they asked her to continue doing so they could complete tests.

The paramedics said that his blood pressure was unreadable so they started to provide him with oxygen and attempted other tests.

He had gone pale and clammy and short of breath and his family was told it was clear there was severe blood loss and that he was ‘very unwell’.

Christopher and his friend told paramedics there had been previous bleeds in the area in the week before but these had all been controllable.

On the way to Royal Blackburn Hospital, he went into cardiac arrest.

He was given blood and CPR and after three rounds, he had a heartbeat. Shortly after, he arrested again, with CPR continuing for 26 minutes until he was declared dead.

The doctor confirmed the cause of death to be hypovolemic shock - a condition in which severe blood loss makes the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body.

A post-mortem scan could not determine whether the damage was to the femoral vein or artery, and there was not enough blood for a toxicology test, so they instead used urine.

Christopher had been off drugs, with his family thinking he had fully kicked the habit, but a urine test showed that he had a number of drugs in his system including heroin and cocaine.

Coroner Richard Taylor said: “Sadly, at that time there is nothing any medic could do for him.

“It seems to me this all relates to the fact has been a long-term drug user.

“If he wasn’t a drug user, his groin would not have been so damaged and he wouldn’t have bled the way he did.”

The coroner concluded Christopher's death was drug related.

He added: “It’s all because of the drug use over the many years.”