FORMER Formula One driver Victor Wilson died when he developed an agonising infection after a tumble down the stairs in which he fractured his shoulder.

The 69-year-old, who had Parkinsons disease, developed an infection which eventually proved fatal on January 14, four months after his fall, a High Wycombe inquest heard on Tuesday.

Mr Wilson died at the Lawns Nursing Home in Gerrards Cross, a week after being discharged from Wycombe Hospital.

His wife, Anita, of Heath Road, Beaconsfield, described how she heard a thud and found her husband at the foot of the stairs crying with the pain in his left shoulder on September 17 last year.

She was concerned as to whether the infection had cleared before he was discharged from hospital.

Richard Hulett, coroner for Buckinghamshire, returned a verdict of accidental death. He added: "The family are naturally interested whether or not he had this infection as he left the hospital, as he was discharged."

But he told the inquest "it cannot be discovered" due to lack of conclusive evidence.

Geoffrey Taylor, consultant orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in the shoulder area, examined Mr Wilson after his fall. He told the inquest Mr Wilson had badly fractured two humerus bones in his left shoulder and two surgical procedures to pin the fracture were unsuccessful.

He told the inquest that Mr Wilson was badly affected by Parkinson's and the fractured bone was 'excavating' a cavernous space inside the shoulder which had become infected.

By December 14, a wound in the area was still oozing and by December 22 it was causing Mr Wilson great discomfort and was not healing, despite treatment, the inquest heard.

Two days later the wound was closing. He was discharged on January 7.

David Waghorn, consultant microbiologist at Wycombe Hospital, said they had received four swabs taken from Mr Wilson and checked them in a laboratory.

He said a swab taken on January 1 showed no sign of infection, although at this stage Mr Wilson was being treated with antibiotics and this would not necessarily mean an infection had gone away completely.

Dr David Bailey, consultant pathologist at Wycombe Hospital, carried out a post mortem on Mr Wilson and told the inquest he believed he died of cardiac failure due to septicaemia caused by the infected shoulder joint.

Mrs Wilson said after the inquest: "He loved life and wasn't going to give up. He was a fighter."

November 22, 2001 16:30