A MAN died from septaecemia after falling and trapping his arm behind the radiator at his home in Bishop's Waltham.

An inquest heard how Derek Cuthbert, of Godfrey Pink Way, died at Salisbury Hospital after he fell in his ensuite bathroom on New Year's Eve.

The 82-year-old reached out in front where the radiator stood after his legs gave way and got his arm stuck behind the attached towel rail.

He suffered severe burns to his armpit and his side.

The hearing was told how his wife Winifred tried long and hard to free him eventually doing so before the New Year bells chimed.

However, despite a skin graft on January 24, the retired aircraft engineer deteriorated rapidly and he was pronounced dead on January 30.

His daughter, Ann Cuthbert-Baines, told the hearing her father wasn't the type to cry out and perhaps didn't alert others as to the seriousness of his condition.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, senior coroner for South Hampshire Grahame Short, said: "He was the sort that didn't want to make a fuss and make out how serious it was.

"It's clear to me that because he died as a result of the burn ultimately it was the burn that led to him getting into the situation where he had to have an operation, get an infection on the ward, which led to septaecemia and death."