MEDICS attempting to save the life of Swindon builder Thomas Deacon, accidentally pierced his heart during a high risk procedure, an inquest heard.

Thomas William Deacon, 43, of Cranmore Avenue, Park South, was admitted to the former Princess Margaret Hospital on August 18 last year with abdominal pains and was found to have low-blood pressure leading to heart problems.

Despite the best efforts of the medical team, who struggled to diagnose his condition, Mr Deacon grew worse overnight and developed heart problems, Swindon Coroners' Court heard.

Specialists decided that the sack containing his heart was filling with fluid, making it difficult for it to function.

And the hearing was told that they agreed that Mr Deacon's only chance of survival lay in carrying out a last resort procedure known as a pericardial centesis, where a needle is used to drain the fluid from the sack containing the heart muscle. One of the team, Christopher Streets, then a senior registrar at Princess Margaret Hospital, volunteered to carry out the procedure.

He told the inquest: "We collectively determined that there was a problem with fluid surrounding the heart in the pericardial sack.

"Ideally this procedure should be done with the help of imaging equipment that would allow us to see the position of the needle. But time was running out."

During the procedure, the doctor was only able to draw off a small amount of blood.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Deacon's heart stopped. Despite being revived temporarily by the team, Mr Deacon had a second cardiac arrest half-an-hour later and died at 7.10am on August 19.

A post-mortem carried out by Dr Robert Van Hegan revealed Mr Deacon's died from a puncture wound to the right ventricle.

The examination revealed the patient had very small adrenal glands which would have caused him to suffer from Addison's Disease, a condition causing low -blood pressure.

Wiltshire Coroner David Masters, recording a verdict of misadventure, said: "I cannot say that he died of natural causes because there was an invasive process. My verdict does not imply that there was any negligence. It should be recognised that Mr Deacon may have died a matter of minutes later."

After the inquest, Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust's director of nursing Elaine Strachan-Hall said: "This is a very sad case of a comparatively young man admitted to hospital.

"We were unable to save him and for this we extend our sympathies to his family and those who were close to him."