Katie was a "happily married young mother of two" with a deadly secret.

Katie’s secret life was well hidden, until it killed her.

Katie Lee Howman seemed like a happy 30-year-old.

She was a nurse. A wife. A mother of two.

But behind the smile, she was tormented by a sinister habit she could not break. She was addicted to opiates.

In her quest to feed her addiction, the Queensland mother deceived all those around her – including the 30-odd doctors and numerous pharmacists she visited in and around the Toowoomba area.

Her story ended tragically on December 21, 2013, when her husband, Heath, found her slumped across their bathroom floor. A syringe lay next to her body. She had fatally overdosed on the synthetic opioid Fentanyl, a medical grade drug.

It wasn’t the first time Ms Howman had overdosed. She was found unconscious by a colleague on her first day back at work from maternity leave in 2010. That time, she was able to be resuscitated.

Mr Howman told an inquest into her death he became suspicious she was using drugs in the weeks before her death, but she denied doing so, the Sunshine Coast Daily reports.

“I asked her if she was injecting anything and she swore to me she was not, but she still did not admit that she had a problem,” he said.

He said when he arrived home from work early on the fateful day, his son “came running out saying Mummy was in the bathroom and would not let him in”.

“Our daughter was in her bedroom crying which I immediately thought was odd.

“I noticed the bathroom door was locked, so I went and got a bread knife to open the door and I found Katie lying on the floor.

“Her feet were blue and there was a syringe next to her body.”

The inquest examined how Ms Howman obtained more than 3000 Tramadol and Oxycodone tablets from at least 30 different doctors while under professional supervision for drug addiction.

Coroner Christine Clements determined she probably got the drug Fentanyl from her workplace, Toowoomba Base Hospital, News Limited reports.

She said it was possible Ms Howman was not aware how potent the drug could be.

“The tragedy is that there was an undeniable record of Katie’s growing dependency and reckless behaviour in accessing prescriptions for opioids,” the coroner said.

“She was doctor shopping within the wider Toowoomba area and beyond, sourcing oxycodone as well as tramadol.”

Ms Clements said one of the major flaws in the systems designed to prevent “doctor-shopping” was that they relied on a doctor or pharmacist becoming suspicious and requesting information, which is not available in real time.

She recommended real-time access to a patient’s medical history be allowed as a matter of priority.

Mr Howman told the inquest his wife was the best partner anyone could wish for and “loved nursing because she loved helping others”.

“We are all shocked by Katie’s death and continue to struggle with her loss,” he said.

“As a family we hope something positive comes out of this so no other family has to go through what we did.”

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These “faces of addiction” are incredibly hard to see. But please, don’t look away.