Mother dies of overdose months after finding 16-year-old son hanging at home: 'She had nothing to live for'
A distraught mother killed herself just four months after she found her ballet dancer son hanging at their family home because she had "nothing to live for", an inquest has heard.
A hearing at Winchester, Hants, was told of how 46-year-old Helene Beauchamp, a TV executive who worked on programs such as 'Birds of a Feather' and 'Goodnight Sweetheart', was heartbroken after her 16-year-old son James committed suicide at their Tring, Herts, home on December 5, 2018.
Assistant coroner Samantha Marsh heard that Beauchamp had been incredibly proud of James, her only son, and often tweeted in support of the teen, who performed in 'The Nutcracker' in December 2015 at Her Majesty's Theater in London.
His death broke her, and on the day of his funeral, she was reportedly heard saying she wanted to be buried along with him because she had "nothing to live for as her life was her and her son."
A day after his funeral on December 23, 2018, she overdosed on medication and alcohol and was found on the bathroom floor of their home, but survived after she was rushed to the hospital.
Speaking at the inquest, Alexander Langford, a consultant psychiatrist at The Whiteleaf Centre, Aylesbury, where she was admitted, said Beauchamp did not have any significant mental health difficulties before James' suicide, and that his death changed her.
"Helene was talking about not being comfortable being at home due to the intrusive memories," he said. " She was talking about going around the world which worried the people around her."
"We were immediately struck by how different she was from the other patients. She was grieving," he continued. "Being on the ward was hard for Helene surrounded by those mentally ill as it brought back memories of her son who struggled with mental health difficulties."
"Every time we spoke to her the loss of James was central to how she felt, she said if James was to somehow come back, she would be fine," Langford added.
Marsh heard that Beauchamp's care coordinator told her she was "can still have more children" as she was "still young" and that it was "God's plan to take your son," something Langford admitted was "disgusting" and "entirely inappropriate".
Despite being considered a high suicide risk, she was discharged from the Whiteleaf Centre on March 27, 2019. She killed herself a little over two weeks later.
Following a weekend bereavement retreat in Bedfordshire on April 10, she approached her new doctor's surgery and informed them she had overdosed before collapsing and going into cardiac arrest.
Dr. Andrew Wade, a consultant in intensive care at the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital where she was admitted, revealed she had suffered a hypoxic brain injury, and that after she showed no signs of improvement or recovery, she passed away on April 15.
Marsh ruled her death a suicide.