A "VERY intelligent" family man died after a medical procedure left him with a health condition.

Sydney George Chapman, 75, was pronounced dead at Winchester hospital on June 22, an inquest heard.

He had been recovering after undergoing an ERCP in Basingstoke six days before.

This left Mr Chapman with pancreatitis – despite there only being a 5 per cent risk of the procedure causing this.

Dr Michael Reynolds who performed the ERCP on Mr Chapman told Winchester Coroner's Court: "Mr Chapman had a difficult diagnosis. He was seen in Winchester in February after reporting abdominal pain.

"He had scans which showed the drainage system of the liver but it wasn't clear what was going on, so we decided to do the ERCP.

"This is a very small camera in a tube, and I'm the only person at the hospital trust trained to perform this. It's high-risk, so I sat with the radiologist to see if it was necessary.

"We were worried there was something nasty going on and noticed features of a rare cancer. We were very concerned."

When performing the procedure, Dr Reynolds could not insert the tube camera far enough into the liver bile duct to make a diagnosis.

Mr Chapman was sent to Winchester hospital to recover where he was diagnosed with pancreatitis.

According to a medical report this ultimately caused multi-organ failure.

Dr Reynolds said: "Pancreatitis is a recognised complication of an ERCP. In the UK there is a 2.3 per cent chance of causing a tear or a bleed in the procedure, and a 5 per cent chance of causing pancreatitis.

"We believe he was slightly more at risk due to the abnormal drainage system."

Mr Chapman lived in Roberts Road, Barton Stacey.

His daughter Nicole Chapman said: "Dad was a physicist and computer scientist – very intelligent, very calm and a great dad. He was a real family man."

Alexandra Chapman, his other daughter added: "He was a very active man, he liked doing things in the sunshine, sailing, gardening and sitting in his deck chair listening to the cricket.

"He wasn't an ill man which is why it came as such a big shock. It's been difficult in this Covid situation to grieve as our family is quite spread out."

Area coroner Jason Pegg adopted the medical cause of death to conclude the inquest.