AN ELDERLY nursing home resident who was fed up with the soft food diet he had been put on died after choking on a sandwich he took from the plate of another resident.

An inquest into the death of 84-year-old Arturo Canova, who had been in Belgarth Nursing Home, in Wheatley Lane Road, Barrowford, for four years, heard that he was put on soft food only after having trouble swallowing.

But care home manager, Catherine Ryan, a registered nurse, said Mr Canova, who suffered from dementia, had wanted solid food.

She said: "He knew what he wanted and it was not sloppy, soft food, but it was explained to him that he had been put on it for his own good."

However, the inquest heard that during a meal time in March he took sandwiches from the plate of another resident and choked when he tried to eat them. He was taken to hospital by ambulance but died.

A post mortem examination revealed that he had died when his airway had become blocked with food.

Acting East Lancashire coroner, Richard Taylor, recorded a verdict of accidental death.