A TEENAGE girl died of irreparable brain damage after taking opiate-based prescription painkillers given to her by a friend.
An inquest heard 17-year-old Milly Walker had drunk a small amount of alcohol which, combined with the Meptazinol pills she had been taking to relieve back pain, had proved fatal. On their own neither the pills nor the alcohol would have proved dangerous.
Milly was found unconscious in bed at her Athersley home in May last year. Her brain had been starved of oxygen.
She lay in a coma in hospital for four months and died from bronchial pneumonia brought about by the brain damage.
The hair and beauty student from Forrest Road, suffered from curvature of the spine and had been given the painkillers by her friend Pauline Nichol.
Ms Nichol said her partner, Adam Ford, had been prescribed the Meptazinol for a slipped disc.
She said she told Milly to tell her mother about them and to ask her GP if he thought they would help her back ache.
The inquest heard that on May 10, the day of Milly's mother Jackie's birthday, Milly had drunk some cider and a glass of Lambrini wine.
Her mum later found Milly lying in bed "floppy" and "grey" and ran into the street screaming for help.
Strands of Milly's hair were sent to Strasbourg for analysis by world expert Dr Pascal Kintz.
It showed she had taken the painkiller over several months. There were only slight levels of alcohol in her bloodstream.
Recording a verdict of misadventure deputy coroner Judith Naylor said: "We don't know exactly how many tablets she took, but we do know that the level of alcohol and level of tablets taken on their own would not have been dangerous.
"Tragically, the effect of combining the two proved to be fatal.
"No-one should give to someone a drug that has been prescribed for someone else.
"Ms Nichol says she was trying to help, but it is an odd and unusual thing to do."
After the inquest, Milly's parents Nigel and Jackie said: "We would urge people never to give prescriptions drugs to anyone."
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