Scanned from HARLOW CITIZEN dated 11 Dec 1970

Nurse lay dead over a week before being found

A 21-year-old nurse at Princess Alexandra Hospital lay dead in her flat for over a week before she was discovered by her father, an Epping inquest was told on Tuesday.

Miss Barbara Ann Foulston, of 244 Moorfield, died after taking a 'massive overdose' of barbiturates.
Dr. Charles Clark, the coroner, said she had taken her own life.
A friend had called at her flat while she lay dead inside—but he thought she had not answered her door because she was at her mother's.
The deceased's father, Mr. Sidney Foulston, of Malvern Avenue, Highams Park, said he last saw his daughter alive at her flat on 28 October.
She told him she had a week's holiday and would probably be visiting the family. 'I wondered what had happened when she did not arrive,' he said.

NO ANSWER

He went to her flat on 9 November but could not get any answer, so he went to the police and to Harlow Development Corporation who gave him some duplicate keys. 'I found her in her flat dead.' he said.
Dr. Ivy May Tuck, the consultant pathologist at St. Margaret's Hospital, Epping. who carried out the autopsy, said Barbara had been dead for about 10 days. The cause of death was barbiturate poisoning.
Nurse Rosalind Carter, of 35 Morley Grove; who worked in the same ward as Barbara., said she had talked to her about committing suicide. 'She said it quite a few times,' she told the inquest.
The Friday before she went off on holiday she said to her: 'Don't be surprised if you never see me again.'
She was shocked but not surprised when she heard of Barbara's death. She had sometimes spoken about domestic and other worries.
Mr. Roy Harvey, a garage manager, of 386 Brockles Mead, was a friend of Barbara's. He last saw her the Friday before her week's holiday.
'I had been at her flat several times that week, but there were no lights on,' he said. 'I assumed she had gone to her mother's.'
He was a diabetic and sometimes Barbara supplied him with insulin and injected him with it.
D.Insp. Peter Farrow, of Harlow C.I.D., was in charge of the police inquiries. He said that when he went to Barbara's flat he found her in bed. The body was in an advanced state of decomposition.
He found six bottles of tablets, two empty tablet containers and 13 disposable diabetic syringes in the flat.
There was nothing 'sinister' about any of these things.
Barbara would have had access to various tablets at the hospital, but she was a very responsible person and there had not been any breach of the regulations.
The hospital had not been slack in any way and every effort was made to keep the drugs under control.