AN INQUEST heard that horrific brain injuries sustained in an accident 35 years earlier contributed to the death of a 56-year-old man.

Christopher Atherton's car crashed into a lamppost on the A594 at Queensferry on November 8, 1985. He was driving home from a friend's wedding at Chester Zoo where he had worked as a shop assistant.

He suffered serious brain damage and, after being transferred from Chester Royal Infirmary to Walton Hospital, his family were told that he was brain dead.

However, after being in a coma for three months and then spending a further 12 months for rehabilitation at Clatterbridge Hospital, Christopher was able to return to his parents' home in Ewloe which had to be specially-adapted.

Christopher had no use of his legs or vocal cords and, due to the brain injury, suffered from mood swings and seizures.

He was classed as being 92 per cent disabled and was taken on two trips to Lourdes.

After six years, his parents Aubrey and Marlene found it impossible to continue to care for him.

He lived in a flat in Garden City with live-in carers for a while but at the time of his death he was a resident of the Leonard Cheshire care home in Dolywern, near Chirk, where he felt settled.

He used a wheelchair and a device on which he could type to communicate. Due to his inability to swallow he had a feeding tube fitted.

The inquest heard that Chris' mother had passed away in September 2020 and he had been able to attend her funeral.

Coroner for North Wales East and Central John Gittins agreed with Christopher's father and uncle that his mother's death had been a catalyst for the deterioration of his own health.

His father said: "After 35 years of fighting Christopher sadly passed away on the fifth of November."

Christopher was admitted to hospital five weeks after his mother's death when staff at Dolywern found him pale, lethargic and having trouble breathing.

He was moved to Erddig Ward on November 2 where doctors kept in regular communication with his father.

However, Mr Atherton said it had been upsetting not being able to visit his son at the Maelor due to coronavirus restrictions.

"We wanted to see him at the Maelor but we were denied," he told the inquest.

Christopher suffered with several health issues, including asthma, epilepsy and duodenitis. The coroner said that these, and more significantly the traumatic brain injury her suffered in the crash of 1985, had contributed to his death.

The cause of death was aspirational pneumonia; an infection in his lungs that due to the other health problems his body was unable to fight off.

Mr Gittins accepted that his mother's death may also have played a part, but the significant factor was the accident in which he suffered the brain injury.

He said: "I would probably share a view that [his mother's death] might have been a catalyst and tipped things in relation to his ability to cope with all that he was suffering.

"In regard to the contributory factor, the most significant element gores back to that road traffic accident in 1985 when Christopher suffered a horrific, traumatic brain injuries. It is not uncommon for deaths of this type, with aspirational pneumonia, to arise from these circumstances. It is less common that that it should be 35 years after the event. But none the less the incident was accidental in its nature."

A conclusion of accidental death was recorded.