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Thursday, July 24, 2008, 08:00
Michael (Mike) Dodds was urinating often, losing weight and thirsty – classic symptoms of diabetes – prior to his death.
But the diabetes was not detected and he was found dead at his home at Well Hill, on June 1 this year after suffering a metabolic abnormality.
He was found to have an abnormally high level of glucose in his system.
In a statement, his father Richard Dodd said his son was hard working and left comprehensive school in Tetbury at 15 before working in a butcher's shop.
He was also keen on playing snooker and fishing, he said.
However, in the two months leading up to his death, he had lost a lot of weight and gone from a 36in waist to a size 30in.
Mr Dodds also told the inquest that Mike had started smoking cannabis in the last few years.
The court heard how Mike went to work on Saturday May 30 but later complained of pain in his abdomen and kidneys and went to bed.
Having not gone out that evening, he was found the next morning in bed asleep, alive and he was covered up with a blanket. He was found dead later at 2.20pm.
Mike had last been seen by his doctors' in July 2007 but he had no significant involvement with them since 1999 when he suffered a head injury.
Dr Keith McCarthy, who carried out a post mortem, said Mr Dodds' heart was sent off for analysis because of the sudden death but it was found to be normal.
Blood and urine and fluid from the back of the eye were also analysed, which revealed high sugar content.
He said the most likely reason for death caused by diabetic ketoacidosis was that his diabetes mellitus had been undiagnosed.
Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, deputy Gloucestershire coroner David Dooley said that diabetic ketoacidosis was a natural disease process, which unfortunately here, had run its course.
He said unfortunately, Mike's diabetes had not been noticed.
He passed on his condolences to the family for their tragic loss.
At the time of Michael's death, a close friend of his mother, Wendy Meredith, had said Mike was lovely.
"He was friendly and would help anybody," she said.
Mum Lorraine Dodds said: "He was a good boy. Always polite and no trouble. He would never say a bad word about anybody."
Her husband, who works as a barman at the Minchinhampton Cotswold Club, said Mike also loved music – especially pop from the 60s.
Mike is survived by his parents, his brother Robert, 21, all four of his grandparents and a large number of other family members in Stroud.
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WEIGHT LOSS: Mike Dodds, 22.
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