Organ donor saves six lives following her 'Cry for help" death leap

Allison Baker

"She got on the window ledge and just sat there. I was trying to talk to her to get her back in but she didn't listen. I was trying to tell her that there are a lot of people who care about her and love her"

Tottenham, Wood Green & Edmonton Journal UK

A 20-year-old woman with a history of self-harming died when a "cry for help" ended in tragedy, a coroner has ruled.

Allison Baker, of Dysons Road, Edmonton, died 10 days before her 21st birthday after jumping from the second-floor window of a friend's council flat.

Ms Baker, a dental receptionist, had a history of depression dating back to 2001. She had tried to take an overdose of paracetamol four days earlier.

Friend Aden Akanel, who had been drinking with Ms Baker, told an inquest at St Pancras Coroner's Court how Ms Baker died after plunging from the flat in Islington on September 1.

He said:: "She got on the window ledge and just sat there. I was trying to talk to her to get her back in but she didn't listen. I was trying to tell her that there are a lot of people who care about her and love her.

"I told her if she did this she was not just going to be hurting herself she'd be hurting a lot of other people. She just said 'I know' and jumped out."

Recording a verdict of misadventure, coroner Dr Andrew Scott Reid said: "Intoxication can cause or exacerbate a low mood. Although I'm satisfied there was a voluntary or deliberate act I'm not sure she intended to end her own life. There were several incidents of self harm in the months before her death including one where she took only eight out of a possible 64 paracetamol tablets.

"The consequences of her actions - a so-called cry for help - were that she did sustain fatal injuries but I can't say she took her own life. I must give her the benefit of the doubt."

The inquest heard how Ms Baker, an organ donor, helped save the lives of six seriously ill people through successful organ transplants after her death.

Her father Allan, 61, paid an emotional tribute to his daughter outside the court.

"She was a warm, loving person," he said. "She worried more about other people than herself and helped me through with my own depression. Her passing has given me back my life but taken hers away.

"I owe her a lot. I held her in my arms on the day she was born and I held her in my arms when she died. Some of the people her organs went to help have children her age."

Mr Baker added: "Allison always wore odd socks so we're all wearing odd socks today. We're hoping to set up a website to help people in the same position Allison was in so her death won't be in vain."

Verdict: misadventure

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