A civilian police worker from Leigh died from a fatal cocktail of illicit drugs after she became so addicted to Nurofen she begged chemists to stop selling them to her.
Nikola Bradford, 36, became so hooked on taking the non-prescription tablets for her bad back she tried to kick her habit by urging local chemists not to sell them to her.
But the communications officer for Greater Manchester Police travelled outside her hometown of Leigh, near Bolton, to feed her addiction. Eventually she was admitted to hospital after turning up for work having taken 32 Nurofen Plus tablets.
Miss Bradford recovered and was sent home by doctors but just days later inexplicably took an overdose of cocaine, amphetamines and ecstasy.
At an inquest a coroner said the case brought him ‘great sadness’ as she had developed a drug problem due to her wanting pain relief – but it was not known why she had suddenly abused illicit drugs.
The hearing at Bolton was told Miss Bradford who would take tablets for migraines in her teens, lost her father in a road traffic accident in Blackpool in 2001 and had taken it badly.
Her troubles with Nurofen Plus began after the breakdown of a relationship in 2005 and a fall down the stairs in 2010 where she required surgery on her fractured vertebrae.
She had also spoken of her stress, anxiety and depression and was ‘lonely’ after working unsociable hours and had drifted apart from friends who had settled down.
Further to this, Miss Bradford was also diagnosed with a fractured skull after being taken ill with meningitis, which was believed to have been from the fall.
Miss Bradford told friends she took Nurofen as a pain relief but began to recognise she had a problem and told local chemists not to sell her the tablets.
Yet following relapses she travelled various distances in order to obtain more and in 2010 she was seen by a mental health crisis team and was prescribed methadone to try and wean her off the ibuprofen based tablets.
But her mother Dianne Westwell, who knew of her daughter’s addiction, told the inquest that on November 21 2013, a work colleague of Miss Bradford called to say she was unwell.
Mrs Westwell said: “I had a phonecall from colleagues at work concerned about her, she was unsteady on her feet and didn’t appear herself. She wasn’t well it was obvious. She looked like she was drunk, she was slurring her words, she wasn’t drunk. She said she hadn’t taken any tablets but from her demeanor it was obvious.”
She added that she found an empty Nurofen Plus 32 pill packet in her daughter’s bag and Mrs Westwell assumed that her daughter had taken them all. She told the inquest that she had taken her to the GP who referred her to the hospital.
Miss Bradford told hospital staff that she hadn’t meant to harm herself but that the tablets helped to ease her pain. She was diagnosed with a kidney problem and told she must keep off ibuprofen before being discharged the following day.
Mrs Westwell said she had last seen her daughter on November 27th three days before her death when she had appeared ‘happy’. She added that she and her family had not been aware of her using any other drugs apart from in her teens.
She said her daughter had lost friends due to her unsociable working hours and that many of them were married with children.
She said: “That was half her problem, a lot of her friends were married with children and she found it very difficult with the work pattern she had, to go out with friends. She was very lonely. She complained of back pain quite often.”
On the day of her death, December 1 2013, she asked her daughter over for Sunday lunch at the family home but when she failed to respond she went round to her home and found her body inside.
Miss Bradford’s sister Erika told the inquest how in the run up to the tragedy the pair had had an argument over text message during she told her to ‘sort herself out’.
She said: “She would just go to various chemists, she would travel various distances because people would cotton on that she would but quite a lot. She had told the chemist in the past when she had wanted to stop not to serve her. When she went back to taking it that’s when she would travel because everyone locally knew not to sell it.”
Mental health nurse Karen Lee said Miss Bradford had told her previous treatment to curb her Nurofen addiction hadn’t worked.
She said: “She said she didn’t take them to end her own life. She said she went out with friends but they all had their own lives so she didn’t see them regularly.
”She stated she had the trauma of losing her father, she suffered from back pain problems and was dealing with stress. She said she had stresses at work. She did continue to work. In her opinion they helped the anxiety. She categorically denied that she was taking illicit drugs.”
GP Dr John Coleman said that Miss Bradford had been prescribed pain relief for her back pain and anti-depressants but that she had not disclosed to him that she had taken illicit drugs.
He said: “There was information in regards to misuse of over the counter medication. To me she said it was for pain, I think an aspect was to calm her down. She said she had been struggling with her mood, she had low days.”
Pathologist Dr Steven Wells who carried out the post mortem examination confirmed that Miss Bradford had suffered kidney disease as a result of Ibuprofen abuse. But he said toxicology tests showed that she had not taken Nurofen on the day of her death but that there was fatal levels of cocaine at 11.3mg per litre. He added that she had also taken amphetamines and ecstasy (MDMA).
Coroner Mr Alan Walsh recorded that her death was as a result of drug misuse but he said mystery surrounded her access and misuse of the illicit banned drugs.
Recording a narrative verdict he said: “She was a young last who clearly had problems arising from events in the past. I believe the starting point was clearly the death of her father when she was quite young and in tragic circumstances she then had a number of problems with migraines, problems arising from injuries sustained in a fall and then problems with injuries to the skull.
”All these conditions would have caused pain, I’m satisfied she suffered pain frequently and regularly. She found relief in pain by taking Nurofen, it is available over the counter and she became quite addicted. It was known by family and professionals she was taking large amounts, what could be described as overdoses.
”I accept there is no evidence that she took overdoses of Nurofen to end her life. The fact that is extremely difficult to assess is her use of illicit drugs. It’s a mystery to me as to how she obtained the drugs or when she used the drugs. Her family were not aware.
”Nobody could have seen her death arising. I will accept that she was not a regular user of those drugs, I will accept she was a relatively inexperienced user. It may well have been she had not realised how this quantity of drugs may have affected her. It’s sad that she felt the need to take these illicit drugs.”
Image via Facebook.
