A BUSINESSMAN who complained of a sore throat died just two days late from a rare and extreme form of laryngitis, an inquest heard.
Restaurant boss Antonio Martin-Melero, 37, first felt unwell during a romantic trip away to Manchester with his wife for her birthday, dismissing his symptoms as tonsillitis.
But, less than 48 hours later he woke in the early hours unable to breathe and told his wife to phone an ambulance.
He suffered a cardiac arrest and died on his arrival at hospital.
Tests showed Antonio suffered a severe inflammation of the larynx usually associated with young children who have not been immunised against certain bacteria.
One doctor said he had never previously encountered a similar case with an adult.
Antonio, from Cleveleys, Lancs, had given up a career in sales to open Mediterranean family restaurant Mi Casa Su Casa in 2014.
He married his wife Victoria in Spain in 2016 but tragedy struck on August 17 just three weeks away from the couple's first wedding anniversary.
Victoria, 27, a hotel manager, told the Blackpool hearing: "He was very kind, charismatic and cheeky and his whole life was his family and his business which he worked so hard at to make nice.
"We had planned to do some shopping but he started complaining of a sore throat and he was very pale and in pain so we decided to go home.
“We just thought it was tonsillitis and he was going to go to the doctors.
''On August 17 at 1.30am he woke up in the middle of the night and he started having difficulties with breathing.
“He asked me to phone a doctor but by the time I had got to the phone his condition worsened and he told me to call an ambulance.
''From when he woke me up to when the ambulance came he deteriorated very quickly.
“We just can't get our heads around it.
“Everyone is heartbroken especially when he was really fit and healthy.
“To look at him you'd think he wasn't the sort of person something like this could happen to."
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Recording a verdict of death by natural causes Coroner Claire Doherty said: "Before these events Antonio Martin-Melero was a fit and healthy man and he was clearly a well loved individual.
"The pathologist gave evidence that this is clearly a very unusual case.
"This must have been a terrible shock for his family and doctors have indicated that in adults this is case is very rare."
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