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A YOUNG Dudley man who was found collapsed in the street died as a result of a heroin overdose, an inquest heard.

Adam Harper, aged 24 from Oakwood Crescent was found in Wolverhampton Street on Saturday November 3 after telling his girlfriend he was off to buy some flowers for his mum.

Dudley Coroners Court heard how he was taken to Russells Hall Hospital where he received emergency treatment including CPR to revive him but he did not recover and died two days later.

A Postmortem report revealed Adam had high toxic levels of morphine and heroin in his blood.

The court heard how Mr Harper suffered from alcohol and drug addiction and had previously been a patient at Bushey Fields Hospital where they given him help and advice to overcome these problems.

Adam's sister, Sarah Harper told the court how she had seen him the day before he was found in the street, she said: "I saw him on Friday November 2 -the day before he was admitted to hospital, he had been drinking and I'd say he had had enough to drink."

She told the court she had known about Adam previously using heroin but he didn't talk to her about it because he knew she had a problem with it.

Sarah added she thought her brother had stopped using heroin and no-one in his family knew he was using the drug.

Speaking at the inquest on March 26, Adam's dad, Peter Harper said: "Adam is the only one who knows what happened."

Black Country Coroner Robin Balmain recorded the death as a result of using an illegal drug.

10:19am Friday 28th March 2008

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