Horror as man chokes in street - inquest

The hearing, before a jury in Newbury, was told that 44-year-old Christopher Dean Tipton, a long-term patient at Thornford Park - a medium secure hospital for the mentally ill on Crookham Hill - was enjoying a regular, supervised day out when the tragedy played out in public around 10am on September 6 last year.
Management at the Kingsland Cafe, Filipe Luis and Marilia Gomez, told how they suddenly realised something was wrong when Mr Tipton began coughing.
The inquest was told that Mr Tipton, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, was accompanied on his regular jaunt by hospital health care assistants Shona Wang, Adam Burnside and Julie Gourlay - known as Julie Davies before her recent wedding.
Mrs Gourlay told the jury how Mr Tipton bolted his food as usual and that she and colleagues had pleaded with him to slow down.
She added: “He was eating a full English breakfast. He took a swig of Coke and I noticed he was struggling for breath.”
Mrs Gourlay alerted her colleagues and, between them, they reacted as trained by slapping Mr Tipton’s back, performing abdominal thrusts known as the Heimlich manoeuvre and trying to remove obstruction from his airways.
David and Carol Haycock told the hearing how they and other customers watched in horror as, despite efforts to save him, Mr Tipton collapsed and turned blue.
Mrs Haycock added: “I have to say , the carers did their damnedest.”
Nevertheless, the inquest heard, the carers were verbally abused by at least one member of the public as they battled to save Mr Tipton and Mr Burnside said he had to ask some onlookers to back off to make room.
Just as Mr Tipton was being lowered into the recovery position, paramedics Carol McKeown and Kirsty Tuthill arrived, shortly followed by ambulance technician Neale Marney.
They tried to remove food from Mr Tipton’s airways and restart his heart but, the inquest heard, Mr Tipton died on the way to the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke.
Kingsclere Medical Practise GP Dr Philip White said Mr Tipton had no major, underlying phsyical health problems and a post mortem examination revealed he died from asphyxia due to food inhalation.
The jury - a requisite at inquests into any death in custody - returned a verdict of accidental death.
After thanking jurors, Assistant Berkshire coroner Ravi Sidhu said: “I would like to say that members of the hospital staff did the right thing at the right time. I doubt anyone could have done anything more for Mr Tipton and I thank them, too.”