A TYWYN man died after choking on his porridge, an inquest has heard.

Frank Cousins was residing at Bay Nursing Home in Tywyn when he died on 17, September last year.

An inquest in Caernarfon heard that the 91-year-old, who was being spoon-fed porridge by care-home worker Gilda Rosinov, suddenly began choking and became unconscious.

In a statement read out to the court, Ms Rosinov, said: “Frank was very frail and most of the time he would refuse to eat, so on this particular day I spoon fed him his porridge.

“I gave him four spoonfuls and a half of watery porridge and took my time with it and all of a sudden he started to wave his arms back and forth as if he didn’t want to eat anymore.

“He was coughing and struggling to breath and I realised he was choking so I called for help.

“I went to get an aspiration device but his condition didn’t improve, he was still struggling to breathe so we called for an ambulance.

“Frank became unconscious and sadly died, he had a DNR so there was no second attempt to revive him from the paramedics.”

Pathologist Dr Mark Lord, who carried out the post-mortem on Mr Cousins, said he had died from choking on food due to old age.

Coroner Dewi Pritchard-Jones recorded the death as accidental.

He said: “This type of death is not uncommon, very elderly people have difficulty with eating, many times the food goes down the wrong hole, it’s just something which happens to someone who is very elderly This is not a case of the staff at the care home not looking after him properly.

“This was an unexpected and sudden event and I record Mr Cousin’s death as accidental.”