David Duffy died after collapsing and hitting his head (Picture: Getty)
An inquest has heard that a man died after knocking himself out while trying to deadlift a barbell at his friend’s home.
David Duffy, 58, attempted to lift the 45kg barbell at friend Luther Childs’ home on October 1, 2023 when he collapsed.
Despite being warned not to lift the weight – as he was intoxicated – David did so and lost his balance, hitting his head on the ground and later dying from his injuries, CornwallLive reported.
Luther told the inquest: ‘David was a nice guy. He was my friend. We’d see each other every day and we’d have a few drinks together. He was an alcoholic who would drink 20 cans of cider a day and sometimes a bottle of whisky or rum too.
‘That day he was walking down the road towards me and started talking to me. I could see he was drunk as he was wobbling on his feet.
‘He said he needed to go for a pee and would have to go in the bushes so I told him to come in and use the bathroom in my flat.
‘He saw the barbell and decided to try to deadlift it. As he tried to lift it his arms were wobbling. I told him to leave it as he didn’t have to prove anything.
‘He collapsed with the bar and his head hit the floor.’
Luther said he then dragged David out of his flat and into a communal area, where he dialed 999 and began CPR until an ambulance arrived around 15 minutes later.
David never regained consciousness, and was pronounced dead a week after hitting his head.
Andrew Cox, senior coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, told the inquest David died from a lack of oxygen to the brain from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, without a known cause.
Mr Cox said it’s not possible to know what led to David suffering from an ultimately fatal cardiac arrest, but cited his history of alcoholism and the strenuous exercise, along with his head injury.
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