Cause of university cricket captain’s death aged 21 ‘was natural’

A TALENTED 21-year-old cricketer who was found dead at his university accommodation died 
from natural causes. an inquest heard.

Fit and active Thomas Hardman was in the final year of a sports and exercise science course at Leeds Metropolitan University when he died last November.

Wakefield Coroner’s Court heard Hardman had been appointed as the MCC’s Leeds/Bradford universities team captain for the 2013 season. Hardman, from Rochdale, was found dead on his bed at the house he shared with fellow students in Ash Road, Headingley, on the afternoon of Wednesday November 28, 2012.

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Dr Lisa Barker, consultant histopathologist at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, performed a post mortem examination on Hardman and initially recorded the cause of death as unascertained.

The inquest heard Dr Barker believed Mr Hardman had been a victim of Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome and consulted Dr Mary Sheppard, a specialist in cardiac pathology.

Coroner David Hinchliff said to Dr Barker: “I think you can be bold enough to say it was an interference with the electrical function.”

Dr Sheppard replied: “We only find a cause in 40 per cent of cases.”

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Recording a verdict of death from natural causes, Mr Hinchliff said he was amending the cause of death to Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome.

He added: “Electrical impulses that keep the heart beating, for some reason they have become deranged and failed and that’s what would have cause Tom’s sudden death.”

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