A bouncer died after tackling a reveller to the floor, an inquest has heard. Terry Findler collapsed on the street and was rushed to hospital after he intervened in an altercation involving two pub-goers and JD Weatherspoon bouncers.
But sadly, nothing could be done to save Terry – who was known as Papa Bear – and he died within an hour. An inquest has determined that he died of a blood clot.
The 51 year old collapsed into an A-board outside The Tontine in Stoke and then fell to the ground on February 8, 2020. Staffordshire Police arrested a man on suspicion of manslaughter following Terry’s death.
But the CCTV evidence showed Terry had not been assaulted and the manslaughter case did not proceed to court. The two defendants involved in the ‘altercation’ were both cleared of affray and pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour, StokeonTrentLive reports.
They were both handed 12-month conditional discharges and each fined £120. Medical tests revealed Terry had suffered a fatal blood clot and that he had died of natural causes.
Terry’s son, Steve Findler, believes that a hernia his dad suffered with could have something to do with his death. He said: “My dad had a huge hernia which was diagnosed around 2017 and this is my biggest concern and I don’t think it has been considered enough.
“I think it had something to do with it. From the way you see him fall on the CCTV footage, the first thing he lands on is the hernia. So my personal opinion is that that had something to do with why he died.
“I went to the last couple of appointments with him at the hospital before he died and the doctors would tell him that he was too fat for the operation and he needed to lose one-and-a-half to two stone. He lost two-and-a-half stone and then the doctors said he had sleep apnea and needed to wear a mask to bed.
“I ended up having a word with them and I said ‘do your job and stop making excuses’, and that was around Christmas 2019. I firmly believe that the hernia played a part. It was so large that it stuck out of his stomach, so I believe that falling on it was what caused the clot, which then led to his death.”
Coroner Daniel Howe said: “Mr Findler suffered a pulmonary arterial thromboembolism and died of natural causes. I’ve also considered unlawful killing because of the altercation and the two males involved have since been convicted of offences relating to that but on the balance of probabilities I am not satisfied that homicide was the reason.
“Firstly, there was no clear assault on Terry and so it couldn’t be murder or manslaughter. I can’t say that the altercation was the reason for the pulmonary arterial thromboembolism. The evidence is that a thrombin clot is a natural circumstance and a pulmonary embolism is quite common.”
Source – Birmingham Mail
