A WOMAN who killed herself with a massive overdose of painkillers, a fortnight before her death had an operation postponed at the last minute after waiting for a year, a coroner was told.

A conclusion that she had taken her own life was recorded by coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones on 50-year-old Barbara Martin of Y Waun, Harlech, a divorced shop assistant.

The inquest at Caernarfon was told on Thursday she had been in constant pain because of three large gallstones.

Giving evidence at the hearing Richard Horne said: “She was living with me at the time she died. She was suffering a lot with her back and gallstones and was prescribed painkillers. She waited 12 months and the operation was cancelled at the last minute a fortnight before. She was in constant pain.”

Pathologist Dr Mark Lord said she had three large gallstones. Mrs Martin had taken 10 times the fatal level of tablets.

The coroner said the number of tablets she had taken at her home last September was 26 times the maximum therapeutic level. “She was not a well woman,” he stated.

Recording a verdict that she killed herself Mr Pritchard Jones said had she taken four or five times the therapeutic level it might have been considered an accident. But 26 times more indicated that she knew that death would be the outcome.

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