A FLINT man choked on a piece of meat the day before an inquest heard that his brother died in the same way.

On July 3 John Gittins, coroner for North Wales East and Central, recorded a conclusion of accidental death on 62-year-old Gwyn Francis, who suffered a hypoxic brain injury due to cardiac arrest during the incident, which occurred on January 29.

He had been eating steak and chips at venue in Flint when he started choking and paramedics managed to remove a small piece of meat from his throat. When it became clear that his airway was still blocked they performed a tracheotomy .

Gwyn Francis , of Ffordd Lewelyn, Flint, was a carer for his brother Selwyn, who had suffered several strokes in the past.

Their other brother Kenneth told the inquest that 18 months previously Selwyn had also choked on a piece of steak at the same venue but the obstruction had been cleared by someone performing the Heimlich manoeuvre.

He said that after that incident the three brothers, who all ate their food quickly, should treat it as a warning to them all.

Today ((Mon)), however, an inquest was opened in Ruthin on Selwyn Francis, who had choked on food at another unnamed restaurant in the Flint area on July 2, the day before Gwyn’s inquest.

He was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital but died on the 4th.

Assistant coroner Elizabeth Dudley-Jones said the provisional cause of death had again been given as hypoxic brain injury following a cardiac arrest.

Since his brother’s death Selwyn, 68, a reti red process worker, had been living at the Gillibrand Nursing Home in Chorley.

The inquest was adjourned to a date to be fixed.