A young Tasmanian mother who died when her car crashed into a building may have suffered a sudden cardiac event triggered by anti-diarrhoea medication, a coroner has found.
The 33-year-old died at Perth, near Launceston, on December 27, 2024.
Her Honda CR-V drifted across Frederick Street, went through an intersection without giving way, hit two parked cars and crashed into a brick wall.
Bystanders pulled the unconscious woman from the wreck and started CPR.
Paramedics continued resuscitation efforts for 30 minutes, but she could not be revived.
Coroner Madeleine Wilson found the woman suffered a medical event while driving, with no evidence of braking or evasive action.
Police ruled out alcohol, illicit drugs, mobile phone use, vehicle defects, the road conditions, the weather, third-party involvement and suicide.
The woman had been treated for obesity and was prescribed Ozempic in August 2024.
For several weeks before her death, she had an upset stomach, diarrhoea and vomiting and had taken the anti-diarrhoea drug loperamide.
A forensic pathologist found no injury and no clear medical cause of death, but raised the possibility of an undiagnosed genetic heart condition.
A coronial medical consultant noted loperamide was known to cause a dangerous heart rhythm disturbance called torsades de pointes.
Wilson found the woman’s manner of death was natural, but a clear cause could not be established.
“I am not satisfied to the requisite standard, that the cause of [the woman’s] death is able to be determined,” she said.
Wilson urged the woman’s first-degree relatives to be tested for genetic heart conditions that affect the heart’s rhythm.
