A WOMAN who tried to save her partner as he choked to death on a burger has been reassured she could not have done anymore to keep him alive.

A WOMAN who tried to save her partner as he choked to death on a burger has been reassured she could not have done any more to keep him alive.

Father-of-two Darren Edwards, 40, died on April 18 this year after he choked and collapsed while eating a “deluxe” burger at the Hungry Horse restaurant in Thetford.

Efforts were made by his partner Sarah-Jane Douglass, a fellow diner, Jody Hildebrandt, as well as the restaurant manager Karl Newman, to try to revive him but he died at the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds.

At the inquest into his death yesterday, all were reassured by greater Norfolk coroner William Armstrong and consultant of emergency medicine at the West Suffolk Hospital Martin Hunt, they had done their best to save him and nothing more could have been done.

Mr Armstrong recorded a verdict of accidental death as a result of choking on food.

He added: “First of all it's very clear everybody did all they could for Darren.

“It seems he was a person who enjoyed his food and it maybe he was attempting to swallow the chicken without chewing it very much, but clearly this was a terrible accident.”

Mr Edwards, of Pitchford Road in West Earlham, had been swimming with his partner and two young daughters, Nicole, eight and six-year-old Chelsea, before heading to the restaurant.

He had only taken a few bites when he choked on his burger. He ran to the toilets before rushing into the restaurant kitchen where he collapsed.

Ms Douglas said: “I didn't know what to do because I had the girls with me. I told them to stay at the table and I went into the kitchen. By the time I got to him he was already blue.”

Ms Douglas, together with Ms Hildebrandt tried to revive Mr Edwards but he never came round and died in hospital.

Speaking at the time of the accident, his brother, Kevin, 46, who lives in the south west of France, said: “Darren had such a happy demeanour and a wonderful outlook on life.

“He lived life to the full and was generous to a fault. He was really, really happy and totally devoted to his little girls. They were his life.”