An English father who died of a fentanyl overdose during a trip to Disney World may have accidentally acquired the drug.
Officials believe Philip Weybourne, 40, likely did not intend to buy the fentanyl and may have thought it was something else.
Weybourne, director of an international IT firm in West Malling, Kent, suddenly collapsed last May while vacationing in Florida with his wife and young son.
Before he got sick, he was drinking alone in a resort bar.
A police and forensic autopsy report obtained by The Times said Weyborn was in a taxi when officers found a bag that “appeared to be packaged as an illegal drug of an unknown type.”
Philip Weyborn died after ingesting a fatal dose of fentanyl while vacationing in Florida.
The bag contained a powdery substance that police believe Weyborn may have acquired in the American Boulevard area of Orlando, Florida.
An inquest held at the Maidstone County Courthouse revealed that blood tests performed after his death detected lethal levels of fentanyl in his body. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid similar to morphine that can prove lethal at just 2 milligrams.
The drug that killed pop star Prince is believed to be responsible for nearly a million deaths in the United States since 1999.
Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and was originally used as a cheap and potent alternative to heroin, but it is used only by the most hardcore drug addicts in the United States and is mainly injected or injected into the body. I was smoking a pipe.
The 40-year-old went to Orlando’s Boathouse restaurant for lunch with his wife and young son on the day of his death and felt better.
It is now used in virtually all street drugs, making the already dangerous practice of buying illegal drugs even more dangerous.
Because fentanyl is incorporated into other common drugs, many people who die from overdose don’t know they are taking fentanyl.
Dr. Joshua Stephanie, who conducted the autopsy, determined that there were no other illegal substances in Mr. Weyborn’s body at the time of his death.
“Like any unknown substance that is illegally purchased, we don’t know what we are buying or ingesting,” he wrote in his findings.
Weybourne’s death was officially ruled an accident.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, “Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered. No community is safe from this poison.
In a statement read out at the hearing, his wife Dorin Weyborn said:
“It was going to be a relaxing day. Had the best lunch and drank champagne like I used to live in Dubai.
“Then we got on the amphibious vehicle and were back at the hotel at the end of the day around 5:30pm.”
Mrs Weyborn explained that her husband, the Middle East Director of Excis Compliance Limited, said he wanted to continue drinking and went to the Yacht Club Hotel on Epcot Resorts Boulevard alone.
Two hours later, I heard a knock on my hotel room door telling me my husband had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Mrs Weybourne said, “I asked them if it was a heat stroke or a heart attack.
“When I got to the hospital, my husband was not there. I remember the doctor telling me the time of his death was 8:06 pm.”
The doctor tells Mrs. Weyborn that her husband has died of cardiac arrest. An autopsy revealed that his system contained lethal levels of fentanyl.
Assistant coroner Catherine Wood said, “He had no underlying health problems and an autopsy showed his death was caused by lethal levels of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid used as a pain reliever. I am satisfied with that.”
After the family returned to the hotel, Weybourne went to Epcot’s Yacht Club Hotel (pictured) for drinks, where he collapsed.
