Man died in his sleep at Crawley hotel, inquest hears

A 74-year-old man died in his bed at a Crawley hotel the morning he was due to set off on his annual holiday with his wife, an inquest heard.
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Dorothy Knight woke up at 4am in her room at the Sandman Signature Hotel in Tinsley Lane, Crawley, to find her husband Dennis Knight ‘unresponsive’ but ‘still warm to the touch’, the court heard.

She called the emergency services who performed CPR on Mr Knight for 20 minutes, but he was pronounced dead at 4.33am on Tuesday, October 2, 2018.

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An inquest into his death at Crawley Coroner’s Court yesterday heard that Mr Knight, a retired electrician of Mayfield Place in Newcastle, Staffordshire, was an active man who enjoyed gardening and DIY.

The inquest took place at Centenary House in Crawley. Photo: Google Street ViewThe inquest took place at Centenary House in Crawley. Photo: Google Street View
The inquest took place at Centenary House in Crawley. Photo: Google Street View

He and his wife, who had lived together for 53 years, arrived at the hotel in Crawley mid afternoon on Monday, October 1, the day before they planned to fly from Gatwick to Lake Garda.

At the hotel, they had a meal and a glass of wine and retired to bed early - but Mr Knight sadly never woke up.

A postmortem examination was not able to identify a cause of death, but the presence of fluid on the lungs raised the possibility of a cardiac death, the court heard.

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Assistant coroner Chris Wilkinson said it was evident Mr Knight had died in his sleep in the early hours of the morning.

He said it was possible that a cardiac arrhythmia caused his heart to stop.

It was likely that Mr Knight suffered a cardiac event in the night while asleep, he said, concluding death by natural causes.