Woman, 34, had suitcases packed for Gran Canaria holiday before tragedy struck

A woman had her suitcases packed ready for a holiday in Gran Canaria before she tragically died in hospital.

Toni Browne was rushed to the critical care unit at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in January 2023. The 34-year-old musician was diagnosed with respiratory sepsis and pneumonia, suffered a cardiac arrest, and passed away the same day.

Tragically, she had packed her bags to go on holiday before she died, Stoke-on-Trent Live reports. Toni had metastatic breast cancer which had spread to her spine, but her mum Julie Browne said Douglas Macmillan Hospice staff told her she was 'not at the end of life' when they visited on January 13.

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An inquest heard this week that when Toni was rushed into hospital, Royal Stoke staff suspected she had accidentally taken too much of a prescribed painkiller. It resulted in her being given four doses of Naloxone in 20 minutes to try to reverse the suspected opioid overdose.

But Julie said she did not believe her daughter had overdosed so did not require the Naloxone. A coroner ruled Toni died of natural causes.

Julie is planning to appeal the inquest finding. Toni, from Trent Vale, had previously been in the Royal Stoke from December 28, 2022 to January 6, 2023 before returning to the Hartshill complex on January 15, 2023.

Coroner Li Hammond-Naylor said: "Toni was taken to the Royal Stoke University Hospital by paramedics with respiratory distress and she was responding only to pain. Toni presented to A&E with pinpoint pupils and she was treated with Naloxone which had little to no effect. Toni also had pneumonia and respiratory failure.

"At 3.45pm she went into cardiac arrest, she was resuscitated, but her breathing was irregular and she was palliated and then passed away. It is more likely than not that her death was caused by bilateral pleural effusion (a build up of fluid between the lung and the chest wall) contributed by pneumonia with a background of metastatic breast cancer.

"Her death will be recorded as one of natural causes."

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