APPEARED TO BE FIT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17350, 24 July 1924, Page 12

APPEARED TO BE FIT.

INFLUENZA EFFECTS CAUSE DEATH. A fortnight after he had been passed as first class in an examination for life insurance purposes, William John M’Carnmon, on engineer, aged fortytwo, died at his home, No i, Balfour Terrace, under unusual circumstances, on July 13. At the opening of the inquest, the* widow gave evidence that her husband bad enjoyed good health up till the Sunday, and had been passed by a doctor in the examination mentioned. On the Sunday morning he went to work m the garden, but returned in a. quarter or an hour, complaining of pains, which seemed to affect the whole of the body. He took a dose of painkiller, and went to bed, but "hen she utent to sec him a little while later she could got no answer from him. A doctor who was summoned pronounced life extinct. Tlie inquest wns resumed yesterday, Mr H. \. \\ iddowson, S.M., presidDr A. B. Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Hospital, said that-death resulted from heart failure due to myocarditis, and recent pericarditis. This was probably set up by influenza, which may have been thought, at the time, to have been just a. cold. In reply to the Coroner, Dr Pearson said he did not think that it would have been possible for a doctor making an examination for life insurance purposes a fortnight earlier to detect the trouble. Florence Walker, a married woman, who lived opposite deceased’s residence, said that she knew him as a neighbour; she saw’ him in the week previous to his death, and he appeared to be in perfectly good health. The coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.