JORDAN: PETROL STATION STAFF RERUSED TO HELP DYING WOMAN

Staff at a petrol station refused a man’s requests to make an emergency call for his dying girlfriend, an inquest heard.

Donna Jordan, 35, was found unconscious and struggling to breathe by David Demarcque, who ran in to the street to summon help.

He went to the Shell petrol station, only 100 yards away, in Cremorne Road, Fulham, but workers would not call for an ambulance and instead directed him to a public phone box from where he dialled 999.

Medics who arrived at the house briefly managed to re-start Ms Jordan’s heart, but they were unable to revive her and she was later pronounced dead.

Ms Jordan, 35, was described as a ‘kind, gentle and funny’ woman, but she had suffered with depression and would drink half a bottle of vodka a day.

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard Ms Jordan was an animal-lover who enjoyed walking her dogs and was very close to her family.

Coroner’s officer Linda Morris: ‘She had a great personality and was always very funny with a great sense of humour.’

She had spent the evening of January 23 with Mr Demarcque at her home in (33a) Uverdale Road, Fulham, watching television before going to bed at around 9pm, the inquest heard.

She complained of chest pains at around midnight but went to sleep without calling a doctor.

Hours later, Mr Demarcque awoke to find her glassy eyed, unresponsive and struggling to breathe.

Joe Davies, from the London Ambulance Service, arrived at the house at around 5.30am on January 24.

‘On arrival a male who stated, he was the patient’s partner, explained that he had awakened to find her beside him in bed, unresponsive and struggling to breathe,’ he said.

‘He left the property and travelled by foot to the Shell filling station.

‘He asked staff to call for an ambulance which they refused, before travelling onwards to find a public phone box.’

Jordan was in cardiac arrest and was treated at the scene by paramedics for almost an hour.

Her heart had re-started for a short period of time, but medics were unable to revive her.

She was pronounced dead at 6.35am.

PC Clifford Moles, said police were called to the scene and ruled that the death was non-suspicious.

Pathologist Peter Wilkins said that level of acid in Ms Jordan’s blood was ‘off the scale’.

The substance is produced by a breakdown of fats in the body and is linked to both high alcohol intake and diabetes, the inquest heard.

‘The deceased was not known to have diabetes as such,’ he said.

However he found she suffered severe pancreatitis, probably caused by her drinking, which had led to the effective ‘destruction’ of the organ.

‘This of course is where insulin is produced,’ he said.

‘If you can’t produce insulin, you are effectively developing diabetes.

‘If the situation is not corrected, then death will occur very, very rapidly.’

Ms Jordan’s chest pains might have in fact been her failing pancreas, he said.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox said Ms Jordan had been drinking the night before she was found.

She ruled that the immediate cause of death was caused by Ms Jordan’s alcohol dependence.

‘The dependence of alcohol having progressed and run its course has ultimately taken Donna’s life at this extremely young age,’ she said.

Verdict: Natural causes.
ends