Man died after he ate rubber gloves

A man from Edinburgh died due to misadventure after developing a habit of swallowing surgical gloves, an inquest heard.

Derek Omand Brown, 64, of Pendine Park, Wrexham, died in the high dependency unit at Wrexham Maelor Hospital on February 22, 2008.

He was admitted to the psychiatric unit at the hospital last year and had swallowed latex gloves and medical swabs from clinical waste bins on a number of occasions.

In February, he was admitted to A and E at Wrexham Maelor after becoming weak. He later, and a postmortem showed two latex gloves causing an obstruction in his small intestine.

Mr Omand Brown grew up in Edinburgh, and had lived there most of his life. During his time in the Capital he took an overdose of drugs, which was described a "close call".

Coroner John Hughes told Mr Omand Brown's brother Alexander, of Llay, North Wales: "I believe your brother knew there was an inherent danger in ingesting those items. This is a man who had 'given up'."