HIGH SPIRITS and a jump into the sea led to the death of an Irish backpacker who stopped off in Thailand for a holiday on his way home from Australia, an inquest has heard.
Dylan Curran (26), from Sugarloaf Crescent in Bray, Co Wicklow, suffered a stroke while holidaying with friends on the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand as a result of injuries sustained when he jumped into the sea from a makeshift platform a week earlier.
He died at St Vincent’s hospital on September 7th, 2011, after his return home by air ambulance.
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Curran had been on a working holiday in Australia for a year and met friends in Thailand before heading back to Ireland.
The group travelled to Koh Samui on August 10th and at about midnight were at a bar on the beach when Mr Curran jumped into the sea from some scaffolding erected as a DJ podium. Conor Donnelly said that when Mr Curran emerged he was in pain.
“He landed awkwardly in shallow water on his shoulder or back of his neck. He came up to a few of us at the table in the bar in agony. He said his shoulder was at him,” he said.
Mr Curran went to a local hospital where he was given an anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxants. The group continued to travel before returning to Koh Samui on August 17th. Shortly after arriving Mr Curran began complaining of dizziness and noise. He became agitated, his legs went from under him and he complained of losing vision in his right eye, then all feeling in the right side of his body. He did not want to go to the doctor so his friends took him to their hotel to rest. However, he deteriorated overnight and in the morning was incoherent and hallucinating.
He was taken to hospital, where he had a heart attack. A CT scan revealed swelling on the brain. Tests showed that he had suffered severe brain damage and the prognosis was poor.
His parents Daithí and Elaine were contacted and travelled to Thailand. He returned home via air ambulance on September 4th.
Consultant neuropathologist Prof Michael Farrell said Mr Curran’s basilar artery was blocked by a clot at postmortem. This supported the theory that he had torn a vertebral artery in his neck and a clot developed, leading to the stroke.
Coroner Brian Farrell returned a verdict of accidental death.