An abnormally large heart and heart disease contributed to the death of a visiting Canadian doctor, according to an inquest which ruled on Thursday his death was accidental.

And Coroner Archibald Warner yesterday sent condolences from Bermuda to the grieving widow whose husband died the day after they were married.

The Canadian couple had come to Bermuda to be married last March. Going for a swim at Grape Bay in Paget, the 62-year-old man, Ivan Chrappa, suffered a disturbance in the rhythm of his heartbeat and drowned.

Mr. Warner handed down the ruling yesterday in Magistrates' Court.

Consultant pathologist at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, Dr. John Obafunwa testified that an autopsy revealed Dr. Chrappa as having an abnormally large heart.

Dr. Obafunwa noted that Dr. Chrappa's heart weighed 630 grams while the heaviest normal hearts weigh around 400 grams. He said the increased weight indicated heart disease and further pointed out that combined with an abnormally thick heart wall, and exercise may have precipitated "sudden heart collapse or failure''.

Dr. Chrappa and nurse Barbara Chrappa of Cornerbrook, Newfoundland, worked in the same area. The couple decided to marry in Bermuda and arrived in the Island on March 20 last year.

They stayed in a cottage at the White Sands hotel in Paget and were married on March 24.

Mrs. Chrappa gave a statement to Police which was read out at the inquest.

In her statement, she detailed what she and her newlywed husband did for the day.

She said they went to the beach at around 3 p.m., walked into the surf hand in hand, and ventured about 30 feet from the shore. She noted that a wave had come over her head and that she swam to shore to clear her vision.

According to the statement, Mrs. Chrappa saw her husband swimming out of the corner of her eye as she made her way to the shore. But she noted that when she cleared her vision she saw him floating face down and called out to him.

Pointing out that he seemed to be drifting away she told Police she called for help and that a man on the beach swam out and brought him to shore.

Mrs. Chrappa said she could not find a pulse on her husband, but started CPR.

She also noted that two medical students from the UK were on hand and took over the resuscitation effort until the ambulance arrived with paramedics.

Dr. Edward Shultz, head of the Emergency Department at KEMH, testified that sustained efforts to resuscitate Dr. Chrappa were unsuccessful and that he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

The widow noted that she left the Island as scheduled two days later.