A woman who passed away suddenly at Watford General Hospital died of natural causes, a coroner ruled today.

Lesley Holt, 52, of Farland Road, Hemel Hempstead, was found unconscious in her bed by her partner at their home.

The ambulance service took Ms Holt to Watford General, where she died 24 hours later on September 2.

Ms Holt had battled alcoholism for many years, but stopped drinking for a period before her death.

Coroner Graham Danbury said: “According to her GP, Ms Holt had stopped drinking at Christmas last year.

“She had been making an effort to stay away from alcohol.

“Alcoholics often lose tremendous amounts of weight and suffer muscle wastage, which was the case for Ms Holt.”

A post mortem carried out by Dr Adam Rubin revealed there was no alcohol present in her blood stream at the time of death.

Initially Dr Rubin could not ascertain what the cause of death was, but he did discover that Ms Holt had hepatic cirrhosis and alcohol disease, both of which he believed contributed to her death.

Coroner Graham Danbury said: “Sudden death can be attributed to sufferers of hepatic cirrhosis and alcohol disease, which appears to be the case for Ms Lesley Holt.

“I am recording a verdict of natural causes.”