A MAN allowed home for the day by hospital staff following an operation dropped dead in front of his wife after becoming ill.

Assistant deputy coroner Dr Nigel Garbutt recorded a verdict of death from natural causes on Gordon Lovett who gasped for breath and leant against a wall before collapsing.

A Worcester inquest heard Mr Lovett, of Longmoor Hill Farm, near Stourport, was sent home on Monday, August 27 after an operation for cancer because hospital staff thought it would lift his mood.

But once he returned home he struggled to get his breath and retched repeatedly. On the way to his car his breathing became shallower and he collapsed.

A post mortem revealed pus had seeped from an abscess behind the 61-year-old's stomach, although there had been no symptoms.

Neither Mr Lovett nor his doctors had any idea of the extent of his heart disease, said Dr Garbutt who added he was satisfied Mr Lovett had received an "inspected degree of care" at the hospital.