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

A British father who died of a fentanyl overdose on a trip to Disney World may have accidentally acquired the drug.

Officials believe Philip Weybourne, 40, probably did not intend to buy fentanyl and could have thought it was something else.

Mr Weybourne, director of an international IT company based in West Malling, Kent, was on holiday in Florida with his wife and young son when he suddenly collapsed last May.

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

According to police and autopsy reports seen by The Times, Mr Weybourne had taken a taxi in which officers found a bag ‘which appeared to be packaged as an unknown type of illicit drug’.

The bag contained a powdered substance that police say Mr. Weybourne may have obtained in the American Boulevard area of ​​Orlando, Florida – not far from his resort.

An inquest previously held at Maidstone County Hall revealed that a blood test taken after his death showed fatal levels of fentanyl in his system – a potent synthetic opioid similar to morphine, requiring only two milligrams to be potentially fatal. are.

The drug, which killed pop star Prince, is said to have been responsible for the deaths of 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 powerful alternative to heroin used only by the most hardcore drug addicts in the US, who mainly injected it or smoked it through a pipe.

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

Now it is commonly used to lace up virtually every other street drug, making an already dangerous practice of buying illegal substances infinitely more dangerous.

Because it is incorporated into other popular medications, many people who die from overdoses 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 body at the time of his death.

“As with any unknown substance purchased illegally, you don’t know what you are buying or using,” the publication wrote 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 country has ever encountered. No community is safe from this poison.’

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

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

“Then we went on an amphibious driving tour and to end our day we went back to the hotel around 5.30pm.”

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

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

Mrs 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 just remember the doctor telling me his time of death, 8:06 PM.”

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

Assistant coroner Catherine Wood said: “He had no underlying health problems and I am satisfied, following the autopsy findings, that his death was caused by lethal 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) in Epcot for drinks, where he later collapsed.