Maureen Lesley Bruce, 53, was discovered dead in her bed by her husband at their home in Castle View Gardens, Westham, in the early hours of June 17, 2007.

A tube was found to have come away from the breathing machine she used at night but an inquest on Tuesday ruled the death was not suspicious.

Coroner Alan Craze said Mrs Bruce, whose condition had been gradually deteriorating, had died from natural causes and that the breathing machine's malfunction occurred afterwards.

The inquest heard Mrs Bruce's husband Andrew — a polio sufferer who also needs a wheelchair and a breathing machine overnight — had been in London that evening with his carer.

Mrs Bruce's carer, Olga Kukova, had been at the house but left after Mrs Bruce went to bed.

She told the inquest Mrs Bruce was confined to a wheelchair and unable to do anything for herself.

She said, "When Maureen was lying flat she had difficulty breathing and used the machine in bed.

"Sometimes when she was tired she would ask for her breathing machine and I would bring it out to her from the bedroom. In the last few weeks she asked for it a lot.

"I left her in her normal position with the breathing machine on. She was pretty much asleep when I left and the machine was working as normal."

Mr Bruce's carer, Dina Bartkevica, said they returned to Eastbourne from London in the early hours of the morning.

She said, "We got back and I went to get Mr Bruce's pyjamas from the bedroom.

"I didn't pay attention to Mrs Bruce at first as everything seemed normal.

"I went back into the living to Mr Bruce and he asked me what the strange noise was.

"Only then I noticed the machine sounded different and was making a bleeping sound."

Mr Bruce said of his wife, "She looked blue and pale. As soon as I saw the main tube had come out of the machine I screamed and got Dina to reconnect it."

The couple had been married for 17 years but were going through amicable divorce proceedings.

Mr Bruce said his wife had told him 'things were slipping away' towards the end of her life.

But he said it 'could not be possible' his wife could have reached the tube herself.

Paul Martin, a technician at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, admitted it was 'definitely possible' the tube, which pushed on rather than screwed on, could have come loose after Mrs Bruce died, as it would have continued to pump air out without a connection to the patient.

Detective Sergeant Ian Lucas said police had not viewed Mrs Bruce's death as suspicious.

Coroner Alan Craze said he was 'satisfied' the machine's malfunction was 'wholly accidental'.

He said, "I suspect it came off at the time of death. It had been moved about a lot during the day in the two weeks before her death and that could have loosened it. What she died of was her muscular dystrophy."
Mr Craze recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.