A FATHER died from a heart condition after an argument in the street with youths.

Mark Carroll, aged 43, died on November 21 after an altercation outside his home in Burnham Walk, in Farnworth.

An inquest heard from Mr Carroll’s mother Christine, that her son had “struggled with drugs” in his life.

Mr Carroll’s partner, Lisa Magarie, who he lived with, told the court that he had chased a youth up their street, after the man allegedly kicked the door of the house and shouted threats towards the family.

Miss Magarie added: “Mark was upstairs playing on his X-box and I heard a crash of what sounded like a wheelie bin falling over.

“There was a lad shouting threats and he shouted that he was going to set fire to the house with me and my two children in it.”

The inquest heard that at that point Mr Carroll, a father-of-one daughter to a former partner, went outside to ask the youth to go away.

It was after this that he was seen by his partner running up the street in a bid, she said to “push” the man away from the house.

Miss Magarie added: “When he came back in the house he was restless and was shaky.

“He said he couldn’t catch his breath.”

“Then the youths came back and started kicking the door again.”

Miss Magarie said that following the second incident she rang the police at around 2am.

When the police arrived Miss Magarie said she went to check on her partner who had gone back upstairs and found him “very breathless” sat on the bed.

She said: “I thought he was having a panic attack because of the adrenaline rush from everything that had happened in the night.

“He was breathing into a paper bag and then he said ‘thank god that’s over with’ then he fell back and his eyes rolled back into his head.”

An ambulance was called and police on the scene put him in the recovery position and administered CPR.

He was taken to Royal Bolton Hospital but was pronounced dead.

A post mortem examination revealed that Mr Carroll’s cause of death was an acute myocardial insufficiency — or the heart being unable to adequately circulate the blood around the body— caused by the hardening of the arteries.

Pathologist Philip Lumm said the condition could have been “exacerbated” by the physical and emotional stress that had occurred in the evening.

He also added that the drugs found in his system— amphetamine and methadone—would have made his heart “speed up”.

In his verdict Area Coroner Alan Walsh said: “Mark Stuart Carroll died as a consequence of a naturally occurring disease exacerbated by physical and emotional stress arising from an altercation and the effect of illicit drugs.”