MAORI'S SUDDEN DEATH

Chronicle (Levin), 12 December 1946, Page 3

MAORI'S SUDDEN DEATH

INQUEST HELD aAT SHANNON The inquest into the death of Pita Whareangi, a Maori, aged 42 years, who died suddenly ai Poutu Pah,. Moutoa, on ihe evening ot Saiurday, November 30, was hmd in ihe Shannon Police Scaiion before ihe district coroner, Mr. J. S. Moir, on- Tuesday evening. Following a posr-mortem examination, Dr. Harniyn, assisiant pathologist at the Palmerston North Hospital, in her yeport, stated that death was due to rupcure of a congenital aneurysm, or weakening of one of the arteries to the brain, causing haemorrhage into the cranial cavity. This deprived that part of the brain, which is essential to life, of its blood supply. At the. same time the haemorrhage ca.used a compression of the rest of the brain. A bruise on the back of the head was probably due to the fall of the patient when he collapsed, and this injury had nothing to do with the cause of death. In reply to a question asked by the coroner, D. Hamlyn said that rupture of this artery, suffering as it was from aneurysm, was just as likely to have oecurreu while the patient was at rest as during any exeriion.

Evidence was also given by Thomas Harrison, the taxi driver whom Pita Whareangi and two companions engaged to take them from Shannon to Poutu Pah on the evening of the death, and by Ben Rahilii and Frank Cootes,' who were the ouher two in the car. After hearing the evidence, the coroner returned the verdict that death was due to a rupture of a congenital aneurysm, or weakening of the arteries to the brain, eausihg a haemorrhage into the cranial cavity.