AN 81-year-old dementia sufferer died after suffocating on a bun fed to him by his family, an inquest heard.

Retired film editor Bryan Tilling, from Harwell, was fed the bun by daughter Janice while he was a patient at the Churchill Hospital on February 19 and appeared to choke.

A stroke had left Mr Tiling unable to swallow, the inquest in Oxford was told yesterday.

Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful and he was later pronounced dead.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner said: “Once the oesophagus is full, when you are fed there is only one way for it to go and that is the airway. That is what appears to be the case.”

Mr Tilling was admitted to the Sandford ward of the Churchill’s Fullbrook Centre in June 2010 after suffering fits, the inquest was told.

He remained in hospital until February 16 this year, when he was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital’s casualty department after suffering what was initially thought to be an epileptic fit in which he sufferd bad facial injuries.

He was moved back to the Churchill later that day.

The inquest heard a statement from Rikki Lorenti, a ward lead nurse, who said he disagreed with JR doctors returning Mr Tilling to his care after the fall.

And his daughter said: “I was really quite angry and said ‘how can you possibly discharge him?’”

But Mr Gardiner said: “The decision to discharge him was a medical one. I have no reason to criticise.” He did, however, criticise the discharge process, which included Mr Lorenti initially being unable to contact A&E by phone.

A printer was not working, so the John Radcliffe’s discharge notes were handwritten, but could not be found for the inquest.

Mr Gardiner said: “What I find more difficult to accept is that nobody made a copy of it. How it came to be lost I don’t know.”

Recording a narrative verdict, Mr Gardiner said Mr Tilling had probably suffered a stroke which was “nearly impossible” to diagnose at the time.

The stroke had caused neurological damage, which left Mr Tilling with trouble swallowing and his oesophagus, which connects the throat to the stomach, “cramped full of food” he said.

Pathologist Dr Sanjiv Manek gave the father of two’s cause of death as obstruction of the airway leading to cardiac arrest.