A RETIRED Shipston engineer who died four days after swallowing drain cleaner should have been examined sooner, said the Warwickshire coroner this week.

Michael Coker said 93-year-old Dalton Darnley, of Station Road, may have been helped if he had been examined immediately after he drank the poison, which contained caustic soda, but it was four days before he was seen.

An inquest heard on Tuesday that Mr Darnley had initially seemed unharmed after he accidentally swallowed the cleaner, although concerned son Peter of Orchard Close, Lower Brailes, telephoned a doctor in case.

The doctor consulted the West Midlands poison unit and, Mr Darnley said, told him his father would be all right as the poison was mild. Put at ease, the family decided to celebrate Mr Darnley's 93rd birthday the following day.

Although his father seemed perfectly well and in good spirits on the Sunday, the day after his condition worsened. "The doctor came at 1pm and examined Dad, but said he was OK," said Mr Darnley. When Mr Darnley's condition failed to improve a doctor was called again, but this time no one came out. "I called again that evening and within the hour another doctor came," he said.

"I told him dad had drunk the drain cleaner and he examined him and sent him straight to Warwick Hospital." Mr Darnley died the following morning.

"It was difficult to know how he felt after he swallowed the drain cleaner as every time I said, 'are you OK Dad?' he said he was," said Mr Darnley.

Mr Coker said he appreciated it must have been difficult for anyone to know Mr Darnley was fatally injured as, like many older men he said, he refused to complain.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Coker added: "it is not the place of this court to determine guilt, just to ensure the facts are right and to discover how someone died. However, in this instance I feel it may have been better if Mr Darnley had been examined sooner."