A paranoid schizophrenic died of a cardiac arrest and constipation caused by drugs he was prescribed, a court heard.

Oladapo Ajibola Farombi, 47, died on April 20 last year in his room at the Phoenix Unit of Springfield Hospital, in Glenburnie Road, Tooting.

Westminster Coroner's Court heard yesterday he suffered from treatment resistant schizophrenia, with doctors prescribing him anti-psychotics clozapine and amisulpride to help with the condition.

He was diagnosed with the illness aged 17 and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 1996 after assaulting two people.

On the morning before he died, hospital staff found him lying on the floor of his bedroom complaining from abdominal pain.

A doctor checked him over and prescribed him laxatives, with constipation known to be a common side effect of anti-psychotic drugs.

During the day he did not come out for meals and stayed in bed, refusing another examination in the afternoon after saying he felt fine.

But at 9.45pm a nurse found him collapsed and ran to fetch more staff, while the London Ambulance Service were called.

Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him but they found no pulse, pronouncing him dead at the scene.

Yvette Ewart, his named nurse, said: "It was reported to me that he still was not feeling well and they tried to do more observation but he declined.

"He refused to see his dad. He was not feeling well, he didn't have anything to eat, that is what was reported. It was total shock, devastating."

Doctors were initially left baffled by the post-mortem results which revealed toxic levels of anti-psychotics in his blood.

But toxicologist Rebecca Andrews explained after death levels of drugs in the body change because they leak out of tissues.

His large intestine was also found to be dilated and full of faeces, believed to be a side effect of the drugs he was on for 10 years.

Hospital staff explained they regularly organised physical health checks, but Mr Farombi often declined to take part.

The court heard it was difficult to get him to engage and he never complained of constipation before.

Dr Charlotte Harrison said: "I think you can try and persuade them, you can try and work with them, you can try and encourage them.

"But you can't enforce people to tell us and you can't force people to let us examine them and you can't force people to take medication.

"He was capable to make a decision, people are entitled to make an unwise decision."

An inquest jury recorded his death was a result of a cardiac arrest and paralytic ileus due to the drugs he was taking for schizophrenia treatment.

Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: "A persisting problem was his reluctance to comply with physical health checks.

"Their lifestyles are generally an unhealthy one. They frequently smoke, they do not eat healthy, they don't take an active interest in their physical health.

"They can't force patients to have physical health checks. The only thing they can force is treatment for mental health."