A MAN died from a heroin overdose after he took the drug for the first time in four years, an inquest heard. Rafael Santiago Guerra-Gonzalez, 41, had been staying in Exmouth with his brother, Leonardo, when he died after injecting heroin on August 10, 2007.

A MAN died from a heroin overdose after he took the drug for the first time in four years, an inquest heard.Rafael Santiago Guerra-Gonzalez, 41, had been staying in Exmouth with his brother, Leonardo, when he died after injecting heroin on August 10, 2007.Leonardo was reported to have said to an officer at the scene: "My brother has used heroin for the first time in four years and died. He was smoking, but it had no affect so he injected."The brothers, from Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, had been staying with Katherine Brealey at Madeira Villas.The inquest heard that Ms Brealey's mother, Margaret, was visiting when she found Rafael on the floor. He was lying on his back, his arms out wide and Leonardo was patting his face as if trying to wake him up. He also slapped him and threw water over him.She said Leonardo was distraught and said words like 'my poor brother, I can't believe this has happened. I didn't want him to die - he's taken heroin'.She checked his pulse and called for an ambulance. Ms Brealey came back home and her mother told her she could not feel a pulse. She said Rafael, a waiter in Spain, had turned blue. She shouted his name in an attempt to stir him.A paramedic described how Rafael was in cardiac arrest. He died at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.Deputy coroner Darren Salter said the cause of death was from heroin toxicity and recorded a verdict of drug abuse.