\n Irish PhD student Mark Anthony Jennings was found in the toilets of the Curzon cinema at the Oxford Westgate Shopping Centre on April 28, 2026.\n<\/p>\n
\n The University of Oxford student had been pursuing a PhD in the Mathematics of Random Systems at Christ Church College since September 2021.\n<\/p>\n
\n Senior coroner Darren Michael Salter conducted the inquest into the 27-year-old\u2019s death on Wednesday, October 7.\n<\/p>\n
\n His cause of death was narrated as a non-traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage, which was possibly contributed to by ketamine use.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mark, who was described as a \u201cferocious reader who loves science\u201d, secured a First-Class honours degree at University College Dublin in Mathematics.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2020, he was awarded the Irish University\u2019s prestigious Hamilton Prize in Mathematics, given to top students in their penultimate year of study.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the night of his death, Mark and his friend Liam, whom he had known since he was 13 years old, took a trip to the cinema.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mark got up to go to the toilet, leaving behind his hat. He was later found in a locked cubicle by cinema staff, who had to use a key to gain entry to start resuscitation.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thames Valley Police received a call from South Central Ambulance Service at 11.54pm, but despite the best efforts of air and ambulance medics, they were not able to resuscitate him. \u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n CCTV showed Liam leaving the cinema, said to be looking around for someone at around 11.18pm, but imaging did not show Mark leaving screen three or entering the toilet.\n<\/p>\n
\n Pathologist Dr Alistair Easton, who carried out a post-mortem examination in May, prepared two toxicology reports and one histology report.\n<\/p>\n
\n His findings showed a low to medium alcohol reading of 234mg per 100ml of blood, almost three times the legal driving limit of 80mg per 100ml.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ketamine was found at a concentration of 1,300ng\/mL, consistent with recent moderate use. The expert told the inquest that concentrations above 4,000ng\/mL are generally considered potentially fatal, although deaths from ketamine toxicity are uncommon.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cKetamine causes a transient increase in blood pressure which can trigger a haemorrhagic stroke.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Describing ketamine use in hospital, he said: \u201cAdvice is that it shouldn\u2019t be given to people who have a high chance of stroke, but it\u2019s not very likely that it could happen and is very very rare.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n On the day of his death, Mark was joined by his father when he went to see psychiatrist Dr De La Motte.\n<\/p>\n
\n The inquest heard how Mark had a \u201cgood relationship with his family and that his death was unexpected.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n He was prescribed Vortioxetine, an antidepressant, which was found at a therapeutic level during the post-mortem. There was also evidence of pre-existing cardiovascular disease.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr De La Motte said the neuro-antidepressant is unlikely to have caused the stroke, considering he had just been prescribed it and had only likely taken one 10mg tablet.\n<\/p>\n
\n Around a week prior, he was triaged for an assessment by his GP, Susana Jenkin, who was said to be “concerned”. His family recalled how he had \u201cbeen low since 2021\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was told that his recent low moods could have been triggered by ketamine and alcohol use, and was advised to reduce his consumption due to the \u201crisk to his health and life\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Further help was offered, including patient admission, but Dr De La Motte said Mark wasn\u2019t open to it, and he seemed \u201cfine\u201d after their meeting.\n<\/p>\n
\n Learning points were noted during the inquest, which could have more quickly triaged Mark, including better clinical non-contemporaneous documentation.\n<\/p>\n
\n There were also deliberations regarding the inclusion of alcohol in the conclusion, which was ultimately withdrawn, and whether to consider a natural and\/or drug cause of death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish PhD student Mark Anthony Jennings was found in the toilets of the Curzon cinema at the Oxford…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-795906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}