A care home resident died after choking on a piece of chicken taken from another person's plate, an inquest heard.
Barry Lehane, 74, was on a controlled diet of "fork mashable food" for his own safety, it was said.
Barry, who had schizophrenia, was waiting for his lunch of diced chicken curry at Aylestone's Meadow Court Care Home when he reached out and took the piece of meat from someone else's meal in November last year.
He immediately began to choke and lost consciousness because it was not suitable for his diet, LeicestershireLive reports.
Staff rushed to help and paramedics later gave him CPR and managed to restart his heart.
Tragically, the damage to his brain had already been done, the inquest heard.
He was pronounced dead at Leicester Royal Infirmary at 8.45pm that evening, seven hours after arriving at the hospital.
Leicestershire Police decided they should investigate after concerns were raised about historic poor record-keeping at the home and a tip-off from a former member of staff.
They interviewed staff members and found no third-party responsibility for his death, which was the subject of an inquest at Leicester Town Hall today.
The inquest heard the former employee who made allegations to the police had been sacked from the home and they were not present during the incident.
Detective Constable Sadie Wells was the investigating officer and her report was read out at the inquest by coroner Ivan Cartwright.
The report stated there were no suspicious circumstances and no third-party involvement in Barry's death.
The coroner, summing up the incident, said: "Mr Lehane, for reasons that can only be speculated, did take a piece of chicken - which was likely to be a choking risk for him - before he could be given his lunch. He died choking upon it.
"Mr Lehane had not been breathing for something in the region of 24 minutes [when he was resuscitated] and he suffered a hypoxic brain injury and therefore Mr Lehane, at a later time that day, succumbed to that event and died."
He said staff, who tried to dislodge the chicken by abdominal thrusts and blows to his back, had done all they could. He recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
The inquest heard Barry, who had been born in Leicester and previously worked as an office manager, had schizophrenia, vascular dementia and bipolar disorder. He was unmarried and had been at the care home for about two-and-a-half years.
The Mirror contacted the care home for comment.
