SUDDEN DEATH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19824, 29 December 1938, Page 3

SUDDEN DEATH

ELDERLY MAN COLLAPSES INQUEST IN WAIROA (Special to the Herald.) WAIROA, this day. While talking to some friends on the footpath in front of a billiard saloon in Marine parade late on Tuesday afternoon, Theodore Falkenberg, aged 70, collapsed and died. Mr. Falkenberg was seen to sway and then fall in front of one of his companions, who caught him before he touched the ground. He was carried into the billiard saloon and a doctor was summoned, but he died without speaking a word. At the inquest held yesterday a finding' was returned by the coroner, Mr. V. E. Winter, J. P., that the deceased died from natural causes, probably heart failure. In giving evidence of identification George William Brown stated that he had known the deceased for 20 years. He thought deceased was a single man. The witness described the collapse of the deceased, and said that he was caught as he fell before he touched the ground. Herbert Fitzsimmons gave corroborative evidence. Dr. B. G. Milford stated that when lie arrived the deceased was dead. There was nothing visible to indicate anything in the way of violence. From the evidence of the two previous witnesses he was of the opinion that che deceased died from heart failure. Sergeant D. Clark stated that the deceased was last in the Wairoa Hospital in 1935.