A HEROIN addict might have been saved if he had not sent away two ambulance crews who came to save him, a coroner said yesterday.

Unemployed labourer Jeffrey Wainford's death at 25 was another illustration of the terrible price that can he paid by those who take illicit drugs, said Gordon Hetherington, deputy Coroner for Central Teesside.

Mr Wainford collapsed at a friend's house in Granville Road, Middlesbrough, twice in six hours after injecting himself with heroin last July.

But when ambulances arrived he refused to go to hospital or to give crews the name of his GP, and then he signed a form refusing treatment.

The next morning he was found dead by a third crew, called out by a friend.

Ian Emms, a member of the second crew to reach Mr Wainford, of Woodcock Close, Normanby, said he was unconscious and blue in the face when they arrived.

He took about 15 minutes to be revived when ventilated, and then he stood up saying: "Thank you very much lads but I don't need you".

Mr Emms said: "He would not go to hospital and I cannot force him. His friend was trying to persuade him too. But Mr Wainford would not give us the name of his GP and then he signed a form saying he did not wish to have treatment.

"I asked his friend to keep an eye on him because he had taken two heroin overdoses in six hours to which he had a bad reaction.

"I warned that a third could kill him."

Mr Hetherington recommended that the ambulance service should consider the use of independent doctors in the future when they were worried about a patient's safety.

He recorded a verdict of misadventure