A BRIDE-to-be was found floating face down in a hotel swimming pool by her mum during a holiday to celebrate her upcoming nuptials.
Kirsty Earnshaw, 37, had travelled to the Caribbean island of St Lucia with her mum, Lynn, for a two-week break before tying the knot in America.
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However, Kirsty would tragically never marry as she drowned in mysterious circumstances, with her mum discovering her face down in the water.
At a hearing held at Taunton Coroner’s Court, senior coroner Samantha Marsh blasted authorities in St Lucia for providing “scant” evidence, after three years of requests.
British authorities had requested a toxicology report, which was never provided, making inquiries into the death difficult, Mrs Marsh said.
However, the inquest did hear a statement from Kirsty’s mum, who described her daughter as “generous and really loving”, adding that she was “loved by everybody”.
More on hidden heart issues
She told police in St Lucia how the pair had planned the holiday as a half-way stop on the way to the US for Kirsty’s wedding.
They enjoyed a day by the pool on August 3, 2021, reading books, swimming and having drinks at the bar.
Despite the drinking, Lynn said Kirsty was aware of her surroundings and hadn’t complained of pain during the holiday.
At around 6pm, Lynn returned to the poolside after briefly stepping away and was alerted by a hotel patron to “something floating in the pool”.
After realising it was Kirsty, an ambulance was called and Lynn accompanied her to a local clinic.
The bride-to-be was pronounced dead, with drowning given as her cause of death.
Lynn told the inquest that her daughter was a very good swimmer and had not been taking any illegal drugs.
The court also heard from Kirsty’s GP practice, who gave evidence that when Kirsty first joined the surgery in 2012, she reported drinking 31 units of alcohol a week.
In later years that quantity increased to 50 units a week – equivalent to around four pints of cider a day.
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However, it was noted that Kirsty, of Chard, Somerset, was working to reduce her alcohol consumption, and in more recent times had abstained from drinking altogether for a period.
After Kirsty’s body was returned to the UK, British doctors examined her body but the toxicology report was said to be compromised by the embalming process.
A second post-mortem carried out at Yeovil District Hospital found no external injuries, but suggested Kirsty may have suffered from an abnormality in her heart conduction system.
The heart conduction system helps the heart contract through electrical signals to pump blood around the body.
Dr Edwin Cooper, who conducted the examination, recommended family members undergo a screening with a cardiologist in case of an inherited abnormality.
Kirsty’s dad was also present at the court and described his daughter as “quite the character” and “extremely hard working” in her job as a successful chef.
He raised with the coroner that his daughter had received the Pfizer Covid vaccination two weeks prior to her death, but Mrs Marsh said there was “no evidence to suggest any link” between the vaccine and what happened.
MURKY EVIDENCE
Summing up, Mrs Marsh expressed her frustration over three years of attempting to retrieve evidence from St Lucia.
She said that efforts were still ongoing 48 hours prior to the hearing.
She said: “Regrettably, in three years of trying, that represents the totality of everything we have managed to obtain.
“I can only go where the evidence takes me. The difficulty is in this case it doesn’t take me very far.
“What we don’t have is anything meaningful by way of evidence and when Dr Cooper did get to examine the body, there had already been a disruption from one post mortem and the embalming process.
“What we do know is that events need to focus on August 2021 – Kirsty had gone on holiday to Royalton Hotel with her mum.
“This should have been a very pleasant mother daughter experience relaxing in the sunshine.
“But very sadly events took a twist and on August 3, 2021, Kirsty was discovered face down in the swimming pool.”
Arriving at her conclusion, Mrs Marsh said the evidence did not fully support any one conclusion being reached.
She added: “I simply do not know what part, if any, alcohol has played – all I can say is she got into difficulty in the water for reasons unknown.”
Hidden heart conditions
While your heart rhythm is the way your heart beats, conduction is how electrical impulses travel through your heart, which causes it to beat.
Some conduction disorders can cause arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats.
One such condition is progressive cardiac conduction defect (PCCD), a rare inherited condition that causes your heart to beat very slowly and can create problems with your heart’s rhythm.
Over time this can lead to heart block, because the heart’s electrical system is working so slowly.
Heart block means electrical signals can’t travel through your heart as they should.
PCCD can also cause abnormally fast, life-threatening rhythms by creating an electrical signal where there shouldn’t be one.
PCCD is caused by a faulty gene that can be passed down through families.
If an immediate relative has been diagnosed with PCCD, you can ask your GP to refer you to a specialist centre for inherited heart conditions.
Some people with PCCD don’t have any symptoms.
For people who do have symptoms, they can include:
- A slow pulse
- Unexplained dizziness
- Fainting and blackouts
- Shortness of breath
There’s also a small risk of sudden death if you have PCCD.
If your heart rate becomes so slow that not enough blood circulates around your body over a period of time, you could go into cardiac arrest.
A cardiac arrest usually happens without warning. If someone is in cardiac arrest, they collapse suddenly and:
- Will be unconscious
- Will be unresponsive and won’t be breathing or breathing normally – not breathing normally may mean they’re making gasping noises
If you experience symptoms such as dizziness, blackouts or shortness of breath and you think it could be linked to your heart, call your doctor.
Source: BHF
Kirsty had enjoyed a successful career as a head chef, with her dad saying she was well-known for her food, in particular her talent with French cuisine.
In 2010, she was profiled by a glossy magazine when she took up the mantle of head chef at the Five Dials Inn in Somerset, and later worked at the up-market Dinnington Docks which was once the subject of an episode of Channel 4’s Time Team.
She was head chef there at the time of her death.
Paying tribute to Kirsty on social media, her former employer said: “Kirsty was our chef, your chef… she was our friend and yours… Kirsty was very much part of all our lives.”
Bringing the inquest to a close, Mrs Marsh apologised to the Earnshaw family that she could not bring more evidence to bear, but said it was in the interests of justice that the hearing was not delayed any further.
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