A student from Salford who was found dead in his bedroom passed away as a result of "misadventure", a coroner ruled. Matei Sebastien Gheorghiu, 23, was sadly found in his bedroom by his mother on April 22 2020.
An inquest into Matei’s death at Bolton Coroners Court heard how he was found with a ‘cocktail’ of substances in his body. The court also heard how Matei had a history of mental health issues and a history of prescription and illicit drug use.
The inquest also heard how on the night of his death, police saw a message between Matei and a dealer that referred to MDMA being ‘available’ but cops were unable to view access the rest of the message. Police ruled that there were no suspicious circumstances around Matei’s death and that there was no third party involved regarding his death and no drugs were found in Matei’s room, however there was some missing medication.
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Coroner Peter Sigee who recorded a conclusion of misadventure said he could not be sure that Matei had any intentions of suicide and believed that he ‘deliberately took the drugs to relieve himself of any symptoms, but had no intentions of causing harm to himself.’
Described as ‘ridiculously intelligent’ and a 'kind, caring, compassionate human being' Matei was a top class student who was studying his masters at the University of Central London. Born in Sweden, Matei lived in Salford with his mother Dr Antonia Petreanu where he returned after the country was placed in lockdown in early 2020.
The court heard how Matei had a history of mental health and substance abuse from as young as 14-years-old, and that he once told his girlfriend that he was a ‘substance abuser, rather than a drug user.’ The inquest heard how the week before his death Matei had been rushed to Salford Royal Hospital after his mother had found him unresponsive.
At the hospital they found that Matei had overdosed on Ritalin, which he had ‘sourced’ himself. When his mother asked him about the use of the drug, he said that the overdose was not ‘intentional’ and he had taken a dose to concentrate on writing his essays but carried on upping his dosage as he felt they weren’t working.
In the months prior to his death, Matei had been in the care of his GPs, Salford’s home based treatment service, which is an alternative to hospital admission and supports people who are in a mental health crisis. As well as the care of the community mental health team which is where service users are referred to once discharged from the home based team.
The inquest heard how Matei had been in contact with several different practitioners during this time, and was prescribed a number of different medications to help him cope with his anxiety and low mood. During the inquest, his mother noted how during an eight week period Matei communicated with ‘12 different practitioners’.
The court heard how during assessment Matei would often report feelings of low mood, anxiousness, being withdrawn from his family and suicidal thoughts that were ‘in the back’ of his mind. He also told practitioners that he had in the past taken cocaine and cannabis which he believed placed him in a ‘drug induced’ psychosis in 2017.
In early January 2020, Matei checked himself into A+E at Salford Royal Hospital after being advised by his GP. There he spoke to a mental health nurse and told her he had been ‘depressed for three weeks’ and disclosed that he had suicidal plans.
He said that in the week prior to visiting A+E he had planed to go to London and overdose on crystal meth. He told the nurse that he chose London because he knew more people there and could source drugs, but when he couldn’t he came back home to Salford.
However, the court heard how Matei was always actively ‘looking to get better’, during his treatment at the home based team, his clinical therapist said ‘there were so many positives with Matei’ who was described as an ‘insightful’ and ‘intelligent guy’ who knew the negative impacts his use of illegal drugs had on the way ‘he felt’. He told practitioners how he had stopped taking illegal drugs and wanted to get better to pursue his career in psychology which he deeply cared about.
Along with Matei’s mother Dr Petreanu, his father Adrian Gheorghiu and family friend were also in attendance. In an inquest that saw the coroner collect written and oral evidence from 16 witnesses.
The family raised questions about the treatment and protocols within the care systems that handled Matei’s case. The family questioned how Matei’s prescription and dosage was handled, how the different services communicated Matei’s case between each other and the correspondence with the family.
However, during his conclusion coroner Peter Sigee found no ‘evidence of neglect’.
Pathologist Dr Bashir Muhammed told the court that there was several substances found in Matei’s body including morphine, codeine, promethazine, MDMA, amphetamines and opiates. He concluded that Matei’s medical cause of death was morphine/heroin toxicity.
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