SINGER AMY Winehouse, who was found dead at her London home in July, drank herself to death, an inquest heard yesterday. It emerged during the hearing that the singer had consumed five times the legal alcohol driving limit of 80mg on the night she died.
Recording a verdict of misadventure, St Pancras coroner Suzanne Greenway, said the “unintended consequences” of consuming 416mg of alcohol per 1,000ml of blood “was her sudden and unexpected death”.
Police found two empty large bottle of vodka and one small one in the bedroom of her Camden home in north London in July, three days after she began drinking again following three weeks of abstinence.
The level of alcohol consumed on her last day was enough to render a person comatose, though Winehouse’s liver was described as normal, with some fatty tissue that indicated abuse, and her lungs were congested.
Her doctor, Christina Romete, said the singer had been warned that abusing alcohol threatened her life.
“On the night I saw her, before she died, she was tipsy but was self-aware and was able to carry out a full conversation.
“I was not concerned that she was suicidal. She was looking forward to the future and we were discussing plans for her upcoming birthday party.”
Dr Romete said the singer had told her in the weeks beforehand that she did not want to die and that she had goals to achieve.
Winehouse had quit drugs in 2008, but began drinking more.
She would consume large amounts of alcohol for weeks at a time, before becoming sober, then she would begin drinking again. She had been given the drug Librium to help her deal with anxieties caused by the withdrawal from alcohol.
Despite the large amount of alcohol found in Winehouse’s bloodstream, Home Office pathologist Prof Suhail Baithun said an immediate cause of death could not be determined, although alcohol abuse over 350mg was “associated with fatalities”.
In a statement issued after the inquest, the singer’s family said: “It is some relief to finally find out what happened to Amy. We understand there was alcohol in her system when she passed away – it is likely a build-up of alcohol in her system over a number of days.”
The family said Winehouse, who became a global star after her first album was produced, had battled “hard to conquer her problems with alcohol and it is a source of great pain to us that she could not win in time”.