Insect killed retired PE teacher

Selwyn Wyatt had enjoyed good health before the bite

A retired PE teacher died after being bitten by an insect while on holiday in France, a Cardiff inquest has heard.

Selwyn Wyatt, 67, from Cardiff, suffered blood poisoning after his bitten leg turned septic.

He had been on holiday in the South of France when he became ill, but the inquest heard how he did not want to "bother" a doctor.

He died in hospital near the French resort of St Tropez. A verdict of natural causes was recorded.

Mr Wyatt's wife Jeanette told the inquest how her husband was fit and enjoyed coaching local rugby teams near their home in the Heath area of Cardiff.

The couple had been staying at their holiday home in France in April when Mr Wyatt was bitten by an unidentified insect.

He refused to go to the doctor, that was what he was like Jeanette Wyatt, wife

"He was lying in the garden of our holiday home and I noticed a bruise on his leg," Mrs Wyatt told the court.

"I woke him up but and he was groggy and said he didn't feel well.

"But he refused to go to the doctor, that was what he was like, he just took some Paracetamol and Ibuprofen.

"He slept all day the next day and on the day after he asked me to take him to the hospital because he felt so bad.

"By the time we got him to the hospital he was purple from head to foot."

The father-of-three died later that day after blood poisoning spread through his body.

Cardiff Coroner Mary Hassell said: "He enjoyed good health and had no foresight of what was to come.

"He did not want to bother a doctor. By the time he got to the hospital he had a rampant infection and there was nothing that could be done."