AN 84-year-old man who suffered serious neck injuries in a car crash after he fell unconscious while driving, died a month later in hospital after contracting pneumonia, an inquest was told.

Raymond Hartshorn had complained of a terrible chest pain whilst driving his Peugeot car along King Street, Brynmawr, with his wife Olive as his passenger, on September 5 last year.

In a statement, she described him as having felt fine when they set off from their home to drop off prescription forms at their GP surgery in the town's Worcester Street.

Shortly after resuming driving, Mr Hartshorn had made his complaint and Mrs Hartshorn then saw he had slipped down in his seat and become unresponsive.

The car speeded up and went to the opposite side of the road, colliding head-on with a Renault Megane.

Mr Hartshorn had to be cut free from his car and was found to have suffered significant neck injuries and a broken arm.

Senior coroner for Gwent David Bowen was told that Mr Hartshorn, who was conscious and talking after the collision, was taken to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny. Transferred to the Royal Gwent, he had an operation on two vertebrae on September 22.

He underwent physiotherapy and was able to stand up, though he had to wear a neck brace, and found it difficult to swallow solid food.

Because of this, he was fitted with a feeding tube through his stomach, and feeding was deemed to be going well.

By October 5, he had developed a minor chest infection, though he appeared relaxed.

But later that day his condition deteriorated and by late that night he was struggling to breathe.

His family was told that he had developed pneumonia and food had gone into his lungs. He died in the early hours of October 6.

A post mortem examination found that he had died as a result of aspiration pneumonia.

Mr Bowen concluded that Mr Hartshorn's death had been accidental.