A BEGGAR died as a result of drug use complicated by surgery to repair a heart valve.

A Bolton inquest heard that 34-year-old David Bennett had spent almost 10 years ‘clean’ of drugs.

But after he tested positive for drugs last year, he left his family home.

Late in 2016, Mr Bennett was seen begging for money in the town centre to fund his addiction.

In January this year, Mr Bennett was found collapsed in Bolton and was taken to the intensive care unit in Royal Bolton Hospital with a re-infected heart valve.

He died at the Royal Bolton Hospital on April 24 this year from endocarditis, an infection on the inner lining of the heart.

Senior coroner Jennifer Leeming was told that after involvement with drugs Mr Bennett left the family home in Bolton to move to Manchester in 2004, where he lost touch with his family. In 2007, he was found collapsed in Chinatown and was put in intensive care at the Manchester Royal Infirmary with septicaemia, having suffered cardiac arrest and several strokes.

Mr Bennett had surgery on a heart valve and went back to live in Bolton with his parents while on a methadone programme. However he suffered from anxiety and depression, which left him unable to leave the house without his father, Steven Bennett.

His father told the inquest: “We knew he hadn’t returned to drugs because he never left the house without us.”

Mr Bennett suffered ill health which left him with stomach and bowel problems. His family were concerned that continued use of methadone would cause his health to deteriorate.

The decision was made for Mr Bennett to stop using the drug replacement and he entered a detox programme, however weeks later he tested positive for drug use.

Following treatment at Manchester Royal Infirmary David was referred back to Royal Bolton Hospital, where he died on April 24.

Mrs Leeming said: “On the evidence we have heard it seems to me that the underlying cause is misuse of drugs together with necessary mitral valve re-insertion surgery.

“Most particularly what has shown through is the care and the support that David had from his family.”

She addressed the family saying “addiction is a terrible thing. Please accept my most sincerest sympathies for his loss.”