A Manchester man died as a result of sudden heart failure on the first day of a diving holiday to celebrate his friends 40th birthday, an inquest has heard.
At Douglas courthouse on Wednesday, Coroner of Inquests John Needham heard 62-year-old Eric Warburton had been on his first dive at Sugarland Cave, off the south coast of the Island, in May.
Everything went well until he and his dive partner Gareth Jones surfaced, when Mr Warburton got into difficulties.
Within just 60 seconds he’d lost consciousness, and all attempts to revive him as the boat returned to Port St Mary failed.
The hearing was told a post-mortem examination found no specific cause of death – but did uncover a previously undiagnosed heart condition.
Mr Warburton’s diving equipment was all working properly, and data from his diving computer found no evidence he’d had problems during the dive.
But Mr Needham said on the balance of probabilities the exertion of the dive combined with Mr Warburton’s medical problem had resulted in sudden heart failure.
He returned a verdict of death by natural causes.