A MAN died in a North-East hospital minutes after a knife he had plunged into his heart was removed by a surgeon, an inquest has heard.

Following the death of Alan Dunn, 60, at Darlington Memorial Hospital, consultant John Gordon Stephen, 63, faced charges of manslaughter, which were later dropped.

Yesterday, the inquest into Mr Dunn's death - which had been opened and adjourned on January 13 - resumed at Chester-le-Street Magistrates' Court. It is expected to last eight days.

"It is important to remember that this is not a criminal case, or a medical negligence trial. We are simply here to establish how Mr Dunn died," said Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle.

Earlier, the inquest heard how Mr Dunn was found by his wife, Coleen, at their home in Barrington Terrace, Ferryhill, County Durham, on December 10, 2005, following an apparent suicide attempt.

The hospital porter and former miner, who had been suffering from depression, was taken by ambulance to Darlington, but died an hour-and-a-half later.

Mr Stephen, of the Willows, Bishop Auckland, was the consultant on call that day, but has since retired after 26 years' service with the County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospital Trust.

Nigel Cooper, Home Office pathologist, told the inquest that the knife had penetrated about 50mm into Mr Dunn's heart through a single wound in his chest.

Two superficial wounds were found on his chest and another two were found on the surface of his heart, as was evidence of heart disease and coronary arteries "the size of pinholes".

"He had the sort of heart disease that could have led to sudden death at any time," said Mr Cooper.

Mr Tweddle said that the inquest would be concentrating on the removal of the knife and what that removal precipitated.

"I am 99 per cent certain that the timing of the death and the timing of the removal of the knife are not coincidental, but I say 99 per cent in the colloquial sense, not statistically," said Mr Cooper.

A second Home Office pathologist, Nathaniel Cary, conducted a second post-mortem examination, on the request of Mr Stephen's legal team. "I would regard this type of stab wound as virtually non-survivable," said Mr Cary.

"The reason for saying that is not only has this made a hole in the left ventricle, but there has been damage to the mirtral valve that would need open heart surgery to repair and there are few A&E departments in the country which have those kind of facilities."

Jeremy Freedman, barrister for Mr Dunn's family, said that Mr Stephen could not have known the extent of the damage when he removed the knife.

"It is established teaching and established practice to leave the knife in, in such circumstances," said Mr Freedman.

"Putting it crudely, it acts as a plug. Obviously it has to be removed at some stage, but it should be removed in such conditions that it can be plugged in some other way."

Alan Jenkins, barrister for Mr Stephen, questioned whether the knife was even in the heart when Mr Stephen removed it from Mr Dunn's chest.

"A two-dimensional x-ray would not show if the knife was in the heart, but what it did show was that there was already a lot of blood in the chest before the knife was removed," he said.

The inquest continues today.