A SEVERELY disabled man died in middle age from an illness contracted when he was just eight months old.

Stuart Gomme, 54, of Downley Road, Naphill, contracted meningitis when he was a baby. He survived the virus but it left him unable to function normally, with problems down his left hand side due to damage to the right hand side of his brain.

Mr Gomme, originally from St Albans, suffered from epilepsy which came from contracting meningitis and it was this that killed him.

David Bailey, a consultant pathologist for Wycombe Hospital told an inquest on Tuesday that Mr Gomme died from chronic epilepsy on January 3.

Mr Gomme was at his home address when he suffered an epileptic seizure and died but Mr Bailey said it had been very difficult to establish cause of death from a post mortem.

He said several organs were affected by meningitis but there was nothing apparent that would have been the cause other than an epileptic fit.

Coroner Richard Hulett recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.

He said: "Mr Gomme contracted meningitis when he was young. As a result of that, he was brain damaged by the disease which severely affected the rest of his life."