A PENSIONER from Blackburn who collapsed in a swimming pool in Spain died from a heart attack, an inquest heard.

John Simpson, 68, a retired engineer, of Queensway, Blackburn, had been on holiday with his wife Margaret and his daughter, Catherine Pickering, on the Costa del Sol.

Mrs Pickering told the Blackburn inquest that on October 14 she had been swimming in the hotel pool and was joined by her father.

Other hotel guests had made remarks to Mr Simpson on how cold the water in the pool was that afternoon.

Mrs Pickering recalled chatting with another guest as her father swam.

She said she then turned round to see her father lying face down in the water. She said she had rushed to pull him out of the water, helped by other guests, but said that a chaotic scene then developed as guests and hotel staff gathered round.

Mr Simpson was taken away by ambulance, but despite attempts to revive him, he did not regain consciousness.

Mrs Pickering said her father had visited his GP the day before they left for Spain and he had been in good health.

Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, coroner Andre Rebello dismissed the findings of a Spanish autopsy which said Mr Simpson had died partly from a pancreas complaint.

He said a post-mortem examination by a Home Office pathologist suggested that a heart attack was the cause of death, possibly together with so-called 'dry' drowning.

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