AN INQUEST heard how a 34-year-old Blackburn man lost his battle for health as he was set to visit a specialist hospital.

Coroner Michael Singleton spoke of the tragedy that saw accountant Pavels Taravovs succumb to a haemorrhage as doctors discussed his transfer.

Mr Taravovs, originally from Latvia, had lived in Romney Walk, Blackburn, with his wife Christine, a health care assistant.

The inquest heard that Mr Taravovs had struggled since birth with a chronic liver condition. Extensive steroid treatments had affected his bone marrow causing the need for a hip replacement, which was carried out in Latvia in 2004.

Earlier this year he went to Royal Blackburn Hospital with complications from the old surgical wound and a compromised immune system due to his liver condition.

Reports from Blackburn consultants said his liver condition meant he was too unwell to survive any surgery to address the hip problems.

They had asked specialists at Wrightington Hospital if anything could be done, and they had suggested a transfer to the Liver Unit at St James's University Hospital.

However Mr Taravovs suffered a fatal haemorrhage in hospital before the transfer took place.

Mrs Taravovs told the inquest that she and her husband had had hope they could beat his illness.

She said: “The doctors left us some hope and we thought we may be able to get through this.

“I had wondered if perhaps they hadn’t operated quickly enough, but from all I have heard, he was too unwell and would not have survived.”

Mr Singleton offered his condolences and said: “Your husband was a young man.

“It seems so grossly unfair that you have battled for his health these past few years to have it end like this.

“You have seen things improve for a time and been given hope, only for his condition to worsen.

“Now at the end of it all, to lose him like this is tragic.”

The coroner recorded a verdict of natural causes.