A BRIT who tragically fell off a hotel balcony to his death has been remembered by his parents as an “amazing” man with “everything to live for”.
Lewis Cooper, 28, suffered an accidental drunken fall after a night out with pals on a holiday in Benidorm, an inquest into his death has revealed.
Hyde News & PicturesLewis Cooper, 28, suffered an accidental drunken fall after a night out[/caption]
Hyde News & PicturesLewis’ family left a touching tribute to the amateur football coach and project manager[/caption]
Google MapsThe Brit fell off a second storey balcony at the Hotel Perla resort in Benidorm[/caption]
The beloved project manager from Basingstoke, Hampshire, was found unconscious on the ground after he plunged from his second storey room at around 2am last September.
Cops were left investigating the fall at first with them questioning whether the fall was an accident or done on purpose.
Senior Hampshire. Portsmouth and Southampton coroner Christopher Wilkinson led the inquest and has now ruled out suicide.
Lewis was found to have had put a chair up against the balcony railing and stepped up on it before placing his foot on the seven centimetre handrail.
He then is believed to have slipped and fallen, after Spanish forensic teams found footprints from his trainers on the chair and rail.
Mr Wilkinson recorded it as a death by misadventure and labelled the move to stand on the chair as “desperately dangerous”.
He added that the reason why the Brit decided to stand on the railing while drunk is still unclear.
The coroner said at the inquest: “What can’t be explained is how or why he steps on the chair.
“There is no evidence that there were any difficulties in his life and I suspect that given the close friends and family he had he would have explained those to others.
“There is nothing that would indicate that Lewis took his own life.”
Lewis was in Benidorm on an annual holiday with a group of his close friends when the tragedy occurred.
They had been going to the same resort town for the past four or five years, the Winchester inquest heard.
The group had spent the night watching football in a bar before heading to a number of other local spots to continue drinking on just the second day of the getaway.
During the night the Brit lost track of his friends and ended up heading back to the Hotel Perla with a woman he had met earlier on in the day around the complex called Lucy Quilter.
Lucy told the inquest that she walked Lewis to his room at around 2am before leaving him and returning to her own apartment.
Just 20 minutes later she says her cousin heard a mysterious noise from outside her room.
It later emerged that it was the sound of the Brit’s horror landing.
After the terrifying fall, a fellow tourist rushed to Lewis’ side and gave his CPR where he was managed to revive the Brit.
Paramedics then arrived and reportedly told Lewis and those around him that everything was going to be okay.
He was taken to Alicante General Hospital where he stayed overnight before being pronounced dead at 9:45am on Friday September 22, 2023.
Doctors cited the injuries from the fall as his cause of death.
A toxicology report later found amphetamine, morphine and benzodiazepine was all in his urine at the time of death.
Mr Wilkinson said he wasn’t sure how the drugs had entered Lewis’ system but said morphine and diazepam may have been given to him after the fatal fall.
He had everything to live for, he had started to write his best man speech and was due to start a second football coaching course
Lewis’ parents
A touching tribute was read out at the inquest by Lewis’ devastated parents.
It said: “Lewis had a big friendship group, all of his friends have said Lewis was the glue that held them together.
“He had an old head on his shoulders and was mature beyond his years. If someone was going to do something silly, it would never be Lewis.
“He had everything to live for, he had started to write his best man speech and was due to start a second football coaching course.
“As his parents all of us knew how amazing he was.”
Mr Wilkinson wrapped up the hearing by saying how frustrating the case had been with the number of unexplained outcomes still present.
He said: “I am frustrated that I can’t provide clear evidence and explain what happened that evening.
“It is entirely against the grain of who he was and this makes it even harder to reconcile.
“Sadly, we will never know exactly what Lewis was thinking.”
“I would like to extend my very sincere condolences, Lewis is someone you should be rightly proud of.”
A number of Brits have either died or suffered severe injures after falling off balconies abroad in recent months.
A 56-year-old was left fighting for his life after trying to jump 10ft from a balcony into a swimming pool in Cyprus earlier this month.
The man attempted a daring leap off the ledge into the pool below at his villa but ended up hitting the pavement before being rushed to hospital in a serious condition.
Another Brit was rushed to hospital after plunging 15ft off his hotel balcony in Majorca.
The man was left “seriously injured” as he landed on his head in broad daylight after a row with friends.
Weeks earlier, a Brit was left with serious injuries after he fell from a first floor balcony in the holiday hotspot.
The 27-year-old was rushed to hospital in the early hours of the morning.