RELATIVES of a Kidderminster butcher who died after a five-month coma following a road accident have been told a hospital blunder may have accelerated his death.

Pedestrian John Mellsop, 39, died at Kidderminster Hospital on Saturday, February 5, five months after an accident in which he was in collision with a car on the Blackpole to Warndon road in Worcester.

An inquest at Kidderminster Town Hall heard it left him with multiple injuries.

His sister, Kathleen, said that a doctor at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary - where Mr Mellsop was transferred after treatment in Worcester two days after the accident - said a faulty ventilator had caused him to have a heart attack.

A post mortem revealed he had eventually died in February of broncho-pneumonia following cardiac arrest.

And expert neuropathologist Dr Martin Carey said that a hole in the ventilator would have been a "likely cause" of Mr Mellsop's heart attack, which had left him requiring resuscitation.

Worcestershire Coroner Victor Round was forced to adjourn the inquest, which he had planned to conclude, to await papers from North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary and to try and trace the doctor who had mentioned the fault.

Accident investigator Paul Fulbrook said he arrived on the scene of the incident at 10.46pm on September 7 last year and said the evidence did not point to a high-speed collision.

The car involved was a Volkswagen Corrado driven by Michelle Mellon, from Kingstanding, Birmingham, who said she had been travelling in the direction of Blackpole when Mr Mellsop ran out in front of her.

She said he had been looking in the opposite direction and had collided with the car despite her best efforts to avoid him.

One of her passengers, the car's owner Gareth Barham, said that she had not been drinking and had been driving within the 40mph speed limit.

Mr Round took pictures printed off a security camera at the time of the incident as evidence.

He adjourned the inquest to a date to be fixed.