West Cork father died of massive amphetamine overdose after family day out

In a statement, Mr Kurdziel’s wife Inese told the inquest that the couple had taken their four-year-old daughter on a day out to Fota Wildlife Park on June, 4, 2023, where they met with friends. After the wildlife park the Kurdziels went for a meal in Cork and returned home to Clonakilty at around 5.30pm.

Mrs Kurdziel said that when they got home her husband went to the toilet and soon afterwards she heard “heavy breathing” coming from the bathroom. She called her husband to see if he was okay but there was no reply. 

She immediately went to check on him and found him lying on the bathroom floor between the toilet and the sink. Mrs Kurdziel said that her husband was purple and his eyes were open but he was unresponsive and she called a next-door neighbour for help. 

Two neighbours soon arrived and took Mr Kurdziel out of the bathroom and commenced CPR on the landing but he remained unresponsive. Garda Joan O’Sullivan said that when she arrived at the scene she discovered white powder wrapped in tinfoil in the bathroom.

The coroner said that there was no real explanation as to why he died so suddenly at the scene but the results of an autopsy revealed he had suffered a sudden rupture of his aorta due to a very high peak in blood pressure. Toxicology results revealed that Mr Kurdziel had taken a lethal dose of amphetamine which led to “a huge rise in blood pressure leading to a rupture of a major blood vessel.” 

The coroner said that the dose taken would be regarded as lethal and Mr Kurdziel would have died “within seconds” as a result. He said that Mr Kurdziel’s death was due to cardiac tamponade caused by an amphetamine overdose. The coroner also extended his sympathies to Mr Kurdziel’s family.