An inquest into the death of a man who collapsed at home has been adjourned after concerns were raised about the cause of his death.

Martin Wood, 55, from Stoke Poges, was found dead by his work colleague after he failed to turn up to work on August 19.

Mr Wood, who worked for British Airways, was known to be reliable and punctual so his failure to turn up worried his colleagues and manager, Beaconsfield Coroner’s Court heard last Wednesday (April 7).

In a statement read out to the court, his friend and colleague Yat Kan said: “We realised he [Martin] had not turned up for work.

“During the day the previous day, I had seen Mr Woods in passing. I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.

“I tried to get in touch with him and couldn’t. My manager asked me and a colleague to check on him.

“We got to the house and entered via the open patio door. Martin was half in the lounge and half in the hallway. He was deceased.”

The court heard Mr Wood suffered from Type 1 diabetes, which was diagnosed when he was 13-year-old, and was on insulin – Tresiba (up to 25 units) and Humalog (up to 60 units) – to manage the condition.

Assistant coroner Nick Graham said the post-mortem was inconclusive at the time of examination without further histology and toxicology.

He summarised the final report, which said: “There are reported cases of people having survived similar and much higher blood insulin concentrations, with treatment.

“However, dependant on the survival time, similar concentrations have been reported in fatalities attributed to insulin toxicity.”

“Delay in specimen collection – in this case the post-mortem interval to sampling was seven days – can cause degradation of insulin.”

Mr Graham added: “And so the cause of death given in the report was one of insulin overdose.”

The court heard the post-mortem also did not reveal a cause of death after external, internal or histological examination, while the toxicology report showed evidence of a high blood insulin concentration, and confirmed that this was from injection as opposed to naturally produced.

Mr Wood’s wife, from whom he was separated but not divorced and remained “best friends” with, told the police in a statement that he had multiple previous episodes of hypoglycaemia – or a low blood sugar level – “requiring lifesaving interventions”.

The pathologist said in the report: “The deceased died from hypoglycaemia as a consequence of insulin overdose.

“Although the mechanism is not fully understood, sudden death is associated with hypoglycaemia, most likely as a result of functional brain failure die to lack of glucose as a fuel for this organ.

“It is not clear from the post-mortem examination whether the deceased administered a larger dose of insulin than prescribed (either wilfully of accidentally), or if he took his standard dose of insulin but neglected to mitigate its hypoglycaemic effects by consumption of food/sugars.”

Mrs Wood questioned these findings at the inquest, saying Mr Wood had, the previous day, managed to drive home, park his car “perfectly” and go into his home, showed he had “full cognitive awareness”.

She said: “If he had a blood sugar crash, it would have been known. When I went into the flat, I saw that he had the foresight to open the patio doors because it was hot in there.

“He wouldn’t have had the cognition to do any of these things if his blood sugar was crashing.”

Mrs Wood also told the court she had checked his final blood sugar reading before his death, from a testing kit he had in his car, and it was at 16.2mmol/L, saying: “I just can’t understand how his blood sugar could drop from that to zero that quickly.”

She added: “He reverse parked his car perfectly. I have been in the car when Martin has been crashing and it’s terrifying.”

Mr Graham said he would adjourn the inquest so Mrs Wood’s concerns could be raised.

He added: “There is a slight concern in my mind about the most recent [blood sugar] reading in the car.

“I feel uncomfortable concluding when there are these questions and points raised today.”

A date for a conclusion of the inquest has not yet been set.