Teacher Dies After Swallowing Bag Of Cocaine At The Airport Instead Of Throwing It Away

A British teacher met an untimely end after swallowing a bag of leftover cocaine while waiting to board a flight back home to Dubai.

Victoria Buchanan, a 42-year-old mother of three, had checked in at the Manchester Airport and was waiting for a flight home in March of last year when she made a decision that would end her life, BBC News reports. While having a glass of champagne in the first class lounge, Buchanan is said to have realized that she still had cocaine left over from her trip, and decided to swallow the remainder of the drug, contained in a small bag, in the hopes of transporting it back home, the network reports, citing an inquest into the matter.

Buchanan collapsed not long after when the bag, which contained about $75 worth of cocaine, burst in her stomach, sending her into a seizure, the Manchester Evening News reports. Bystanders initially suspected that the teacher was intoxicated before a nearby nurse found Buchanan's phone and called her husband, who said that his wife may have been having an allergic reaction to palm oil. The nurse found an EpiPen in Buchanan’s bag and administered it, but Buchanan later died after being transported to Wythenshawe Hospital.

After a post-mortem examination, investigators concluded that Buchanan died after she swallowed the drug-filled bag and the cocaine subsequently leaked into her stomach, the outlet reports, citing a toxicology report. Coroners went on to label her passing as death by misadventure, concluding that she died from brain damage that was caused by the cardiac arrest she went into after ingesting the cocaine.

Her husband Mark Buchanan, who left the country before his wife, said that he and Victoria purchased about $250 worth of cocaine during their trip for recreational use.

“We were aware she would take small amounts of cocaine occasionally and it was something we did together. I had left the UK a few days before — not a lot was left, not that that matters now,” he said.

He went on to say that she was not blackmailed into transporting it back and that he did not ask her to do so.

There will be no charges filed in relation to her death, according to BBC News.

"Why she took such a risk will never be known, but I'm satisfied it was done of her own volition and there was no coercion or threat,” assistant coroner Andrew Bridge said, according to the outlet. “There was no criminal activity and no charges have been brought.”