An inquest into the death of a man in Helston last year has concluded that he deliberately took his own life.
James Richard Spurr, 33, of Helston, died on January 30 of last year after he went into cardiac arrest having inflicted serious injuries upon himself.
James had a history of struggling with his mental health and had, on several occasions, been prescribed medications to help him deal with these struggles.
The inquest heard how, at the end of January 2021, it had been noted that James' mental health had deteriorated and mental health teams attempted to contact James but were not able to get through to him.
Police attended James' address and, when officers arrived, they found him with significant injuries.
The inquest heard how James had initially resisted the attempts by the officers to treat him, stating that he only wanted an ambulance.
When officers did try to call an ambulance, the inquest heard how they had waited for a response from 999 for nine minutes.
Eventually, officers were able to get through and request an ambulance at around 11:53pm, however, due to the heavy demand for ambulance services leading up to that time, paramedics did not arrive on the scene until 1:24am.
During that time, police officers on the scene had attempted to treat James, who at this point had gone into cardiac arrest.
The officers then took it in turns to perform CPR on James, and at one stage did manage to regain spontaneous circulation, however, James later had another cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 1:50am.
During the inquest, a post-mortem report was read out by Senior Coroner Andrew Cox which stated that no alcohol had been detected in James' system.
Several prescription medications were detected but they were not at toxic levels.
When reading out his conclusion at the end of the inquest, Senior Coroner Andrew Cox surmised that: "Mr Spurr had died as a result of his own actions.
"One the evidence, it is more likely than not that Mr Spurr took his own life and that he intended to do so.
"I would like to extend my condolences to Mr Spurr's friends and family."
If you need to talk to someone for any other reason, there are people to reach out to:
- Shout: Shout is a free, confidential, anonymous service for anyone in the UK. It won’t appear on your phone bill. To start a conversation, text the word 'SHOUT' to 85258.
- Samaritans: Call day or night for free on 116 123.
- Mind: Get short and longer term support in a mental health crisis by visiting www.mind.org.uk
If you feel like your life is at risk right now or you need urgent medical help call 999 and ask for an ambulance or go straight to A&E if you can.
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