Developer’s son found dead in home had heart condition

A Dublin man was found dead in his living room having taken methadone, an inquest heard.

Peter Gannon (31) was found lying on the couch by his uncle at the home they shared at Park Avenue, Clongriffin, Dublin 13 late on July 6th last year.

His father, developer Gerry Gannon, was in court along with the rest of their family.

Dublin Coroner's Court heard that Mr Gannon had methadone in his system when he died as well as therapeutic levels of prescribed anti-depressants. The postmortem also revealed that he was suffering from undiagnosed severe heart disease which coroner Dr Brian Farrell said may have been a contributing factor in his death.

Dr Farrell said that, at postmortem, a “significant amount of methadone” was found in Mr Gannon’s system as well as therapeutic levels of his prescription medications. The family said that they were “shocked” at the presence of methadone.

Heart palpitations

Mr Gannon’s aunt Ann Mooney said two weeks before he died, he felt heart palpitations which he thought were panic attacks so he went to a GP and A&E in Sligo hospital. “Both chose to ignore his complaints and this may have resulted from the fact that he had developed heart disease,” she said.

His mother Margaret Gannon said that her son had been seeing a new doctor and was not happy with the medication he was on. He was due to go for an MRI but did not bother when a psychiatrist told him it was “psychosis”, she said.

“I am just looking for answers but . . . maybe they should sometimes stop and do a physical examination on these boys before they put them on this amount of medication.”

Dr Farrell returned a verdict of death by misadventure.