The widow of missing organs victim Norman Palmer said yesterday she was "shell-shocked" at a coroner's verdict that he helped bring about his own death due to self-neglect.

Kathleen Palmer said the idea that her 57-year-old husband was partly to blame for his own demise due to his failure to heed an Emergency Room doctor's advice was "ridiculous".

Meanwhile, Mr. Palmer's former GP Monica Hoefert, whom the family plan to sue, said in a statement through her lawyer that she "had nothing to hide regarding the care she provided" and "no fear" of legal action.

Mrs. Palmer, 59, of Paget, is visiting family in England so was not at Magistrates' Court for Thursday's ruling by Coroner Khamisi Tokunbo.

He said Mr. Palmer's refusal to be admitted to hospital on the advice of Ashfaq Syed less than a week before he died, and his failure to return to King Edward VII Hospital for care amounted to "a gross failure to obtain medical attention".

On April 12 last year, six days after Dr. Syed told him he had an upper airway obstruction, Mr. Palmer got into severe breathing difficulty at home and his wife dialled 911. He died in the Emergency Room at KEMH despite attempts by three doctors to save him.

His family plan to seek a judicial review of Mr. Tokunbo's verdict of death by natural causes contributed to by self-neglect, as they say Mr. Palmer followed the advice of Dr. Hoefert, his GP of more than 20 years.

Mrs. Palmer said: "I am shell-shocked, especially as Mr. Tokunbo brought in a verdict of self-inflicted death. That is just ridiculous. We know what happened to Norman."

She insisted that when her husband, who had a 40-year-old gunshot injury to his neck, saw Dr. Syed on April 6 he was not made aware of the life-threatening nature of his condition.

But one of Mr. Tokunbo's findings of fact after last month's six-day inquest was that Dr. Syed stressed that the condition was potentially life-threatening or dangerous.

Mr. Palmer saw his own GP three days after the diagnosis from Dr. Syed. His sisters told the inquest that Dr. Hoefert, who used to work in St. George's but has been in Cayman since last May, told their brother he did not have a throat obstruction and his breathing problems were due to asthma.