A 49-year-old who had a complicated history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) died after a dose of heroin reacted with her condition.

Marie Devlin was found dead at her Burnley home on January 6 by her son Mark, an inquest in Accrington heard.

Marie had suffered with COPD for several years, and was taking medication and oxygen for the disease, but was also a heroin user and a smoker, something doctors said would have affected her respiration even if she were healthy, but when taken alongside the presence of COPD, could have caused further complications.

Coroner Richard Taylor said: "Marie had been in the hospital at Blackburn but had discharged herself at the end of December.

"On January 5 she requested an increase in pain medication for her back and the following day, when a carer went to visit her at her house in Florence Avenue, they assumed she was asleep.

"It wasn't until Mark arrived some time later that he found her unresponsive."

Mr Taylor said doctors confirmed that if toxicology had proven negative then a medical cause of death would have been recorded as natural causes due to Marie's COPD.

However, a toxicology report found heroin present in Marie's system, but towards the lower end of the range encountered in fatalities.

There were also several other substances found, including Gabapentin and meprozine.

Mr Taylor continued: "While toxicology wasn't negative, the presence of heroin alone might not have caused her death as it was very low and she was a daily user."

Dr Naushaba Nadeem told the inquest that Marie was using inhalers and was not able to maintain her oxygen saturation naturally so was also using oxygen cylinders, but these had to be removed from her home due to the fact Marie was a smoker and would smoke in the house.

Dr Nadeem said: "A different form of oxygen was supplied to her, but the COPD would have ended her life at some stage as she had suffered a similar incident in January 2020.

"Heroin use can affect the respiration and causes respiratory depression."

Mr Taylor said that while the dose of heroin wasn't fatal, any use of heroin would affect her breathing and combined with her COPD could have lead to her death.

He recorded a narrative conclusion saying: "Marie died at home on January 6 from respiratory depression caused by COPD and heroin misuse."