A DENBIGH businessman died after going into cardiac arrest while being taken by ambulance to hospital in Stoke, an inquest heard.

David Sanders, 74, was found lying at the foot of the stairs at his home in Post Office Lane, Denbigh, on July 29 last year. He was covered in blood and was unconscious.

In a statement read at the hearing in Ruthin his son Mathew, who found him, said he suspected that he had got up during the night, possibly to go to the toilet, and fallen down the open-plan stairs .

Mr Sanders, who owned Sanders Machinery Ltd in the town’s Graig Road, was taken to Glan Clwyd Hospital where he was found to have fractured his skull, causing a brain injury.

It was decided he should be transferred to the major trauma unit at the Royal Stoke University Hospital, but the ambulance returned to Glan Clwyd when Mr Sanders suffered a cardiac arrest on the journey.

He was considered unsuitable for surgery and he died shortly after arriving back at the hospital.

The cause of death was given as a traumatic head injury caused by a fall, with pneumonia a contributory factor.

Recording a conclusion of accidental death, Joanne Lees, assistant coroner for North Wales East and Central, said: “This is a very tragic case and it was clearly an accident.”