British dad Philip Weybourne died of ‘accidental’ fentanyl overdose during Disney World holiday

By William On Jan 28, 2023

A British father who died during a trip to Disney World from a fentanyl overdose may have obtained the drug by mistake.

Authorities believe that Philip Weybourne, 40, probably did not intend to purchase fentanyl and may have thought it was something else.

Weybourne, a director of an international IT company from West Malling in Kent, was vacationing in Florida with his wife and young son when he suddenly collapsed in May last year.

He had been drinking alone at a resort bar before becoming ill.

According to police and autopsy reports seen by The timesMr Weybourne had taken a taxi in which officers found a bag “which appeared to be packaged as an unknown type of illicit drug”.

Philip Weybourne died after ingesting a fatal amount of fentanyl while on vacation in Florida

The bag contained a powdery substance that police believe Weybourne may have acquired in the American Boulevard area of Orlando, Florida, not far from his resort.

An inquest at Maidstone County Council earlier revealed that a blood test taken after his death found fatal levels of fentanyl in his system, a powerful morphine-like synthetic opioid that requires just two milligrams to be life-threatening.

The drug, which killed pop star Prince, is believed to have killed nearly a million people in the United States since 1999.

Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and started out as a cheap and potent alternative to heroin used only by the hardest drug addicts in the US, who mainly injected or smoked pipes.

The 40-year-old had been to the Boathouse restaurant in Orlando with his wife and young son for lunch the day he died and left feeling well.

Now, it’s often used to mix in virtually every other street drug, making an already dangerous practice of buying illicit substances infinitely more dangerous.

What is fentanyl and why is it so dangerous?

Fentanyl was originally developed in Belgium in the 1950s to help cancer patients manage pain.

Given its extreme potency, it has become popular with recreational drug users.

Overdose deaths linked to synthetic opioids like fentanyl rose from nearly 10,000 in 2015 to nearly 20,000 in 2016, surpassing common opioid painkillers and heroin for the first time.

And drug overdoses killed more than 72,000 people in the US in 2017, a record propelled by fentanyl.

It is often added to heroin because it creates the same high as the drug, with biologically identical effects. But it can be up to 50 times more potent than heroin, according to US officials.

In the US, fentanyl is classified as a schedule II drug, indicating that it has some medical use, but it has a high potential for abuse and can create psychological and physical dependence.

Because it is broken down into other popular drugs, many people who overdose do not know they are taking fentanyl.

Dr. Joshua Stephany, who performed the autopsy, determined that there were no other illegal substances in Mr. Weybourne’s system at the time of his death.

“Like any illegally purchased unknown substance, you don’t know what you’re buying or taking,” the publication reported in its findings.

Mr. Weybourne’s death was officially ruled an accident.

According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration: ‘Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our nation has ever faced. No community is safe from this poison.

In a statement read out at the hearing, his wife Dorlyn Weybourne said: “On May 23 we woke up late and had no theme parks to attend that day.

‘It was going to be a relaxing day. We had the best lunch, we drank champagne like we did when we lived in Dubai.

“Afterwards we took a ride in an amphibious car and to end our day we returned to the hotel around 5:30 pm.”

Ms Weybourne explained that her husband, the Middle East director of Excis Compliance Limited, wanted to continue drinking and went alone to the Yacht Club hotel on Epcot Resorts Boulevard.

Two hours later, she heard a knock on the door of her hotel room and was told that her husband had been taken by ambulance to hospital.

Ms Weybourne said: ‘I asked them if it was heat stroke or a heart attack.

‘When I got to the hospital I didn’t see my husband. I only remember that the doctor told me the time of his death, 8:06 pm

The doctors told Mrs. Weybourne that her husband had died of cardiac arrest. After the autopsy, it was revealed that she had fatal levels of fentanyl in her system.

Assistant coroner Catherine Wood said: “She had no underlying health problems and I am satisfied, after the autopsy findings, that her death was caused by fatal levels of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid used as a pain reliever.”

The family returned to the hotel before Mr. Weybourne went to the Yacht Club hotel (pictured) at Epcot for a drink, where he later collapsed.