A dad-of-one died a day after his birthday after suffering a seizure in the back of his girlfriend's car when he took the drug 'monkey dust'.
Jake Hague, 27, started 'fitting' on the back seat of his girlfriend's car shortly after he took the powerful drug.
An inquest at North Staffordshire Coroner’s Court heard how his girlfriend Louise Tivenan drove him to her house before calling an ambulance.
His mother, Joanne Shaw, told the hearing at that she believed Jake may have survived if an ambulance had been called sooner, reports Stoke-on-TrentLive .
Jake, of Meir, Staffordshire, met up with his girlfriend the day after his birthday last year.
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In a statement, Miss Tivenan – who had been seeing Jake for three weeks – said they had called at a friend's house prior to Jake having a seizure.
She said: “I picked him up at around 7.30pm, where he got in the back of the car and told me he wanted to go to a friend's to try something.
“I knew it was some kind of drug and he was known to take monkey dust. I’ve taken it before so I know the effects.
“When he came back, he was mumbling something about a bong and orange stuff.
“He had no colour in him and I was worried, so drove him back to mine. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him fitting for about 30 seconds on the back seat.
“I slowed right down, panicked and called a friend.”
The inquest heard Miss Tivenan was 'frantic' when she telephoned her housemate Charlene Jennings.
Miss Jennings said: “I told Louise to calm down and put him on his side. I drove home and Louise’s car was outside my house and Louise was in the driver’s seat.
“Jake was in the back fully-clothed and not moving. I called his name but he didn’t respond, then made a strange noise and vomited.
“I stuck my fingers down his throat to clear his airway. I couldn't feel a pulse and tried to do CPR.”
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Paramedics from West Midlands Ambulance Service then arrived and Jake was taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital, where he died.
An ambulance service spokesman said: “We were called at 9.08pm on November 5, 2018 to reports of a patient in cardiac arrest on Cardwell Street in Northwood, Stoke-on-Trent.
“We sent one ambulance and a paramedic officer to the scene. On arrival, crews found a man in a critical condition. They administered advanced life support on scene before taking the patient on blue lights to Royal Stoke University Hospital."
When police arrived at the hospital, they seized a ‘plastic bag with residue of a yellow powder, and a skull containing white powder’, which had been found in Jake’s pocket.
A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of Jake's death was MDPHP (monkey dust) toxicity and coronary artery atheroma.
Toxicologist Nicola Martin said: “A 27-year-old man with a history of drug use, including MDPHP, became acutely unwell and vomited. He suffered a cardiac arrest and was conveyed to hospital, but died.
“He had significant single vessel atheroma, with 80 per cent of his artery ‘furring up’, and multiple drugs were found in his body.
“Toxicology results were positive for numerous drugs in low, therapeutic dosage, but the presence of MDPHP in the blood demonstrated the use of the drug prior to death.
“The level may have degraded prior to analysis, and as it’s a new drug, it there is a lack of comparable data to say whether the level is high.”
Jake's mother told the inquest she believed her son could have had a chance of survival if an ambulance had been called sooner.
Joanne Shaw said: “Jake left my house around 6pm. He’d had his tea and put his feet up – he wasn't going out, but Louise had called him multiple times. I didn’t know he was taking drugs with her.
“Why didn’t she phone an ambulance straight away? She left him dying in the back of the car. The pipe he smoked was meant for her and he took it off her. He thought he was invincible.”
Assistant coroner Sarah Murphy concluded Jake's death was drug-related, combined with an underlying natural disease.
She said: “His heart was his Achilles heel, but there's no way he would have known. But taking monkey dust with that condition really put him at risk.
“Jake had a known history of drug use and on November 5, went to a Stoke-on-Trent address. He was there for five minutes and returned to the car, had a fit and vomited blood before being taken to Royal Stoke and died at 10.04pm.
“Two powders were found in his pocket and a toxicology report identified levels of multiple drugs including MDPHP."
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