A 33-year-old man who died after collapsing during a football match never got to meet his daughter, an inquest has heard.

Mitchell Joseph, from Swansea, died in 2018 after he collapsed during a game.

His mother, Beverley Stephens, told an inquest at the Swansea Guildhall on Monday that her son was “fit and healthy” and “symptom-free” before.

At the inquest, Ms Stephens questioned whether her son would still be alive had he not undergone open heart surgery in 2017 after a diagnosis some years previously.

“It was a big surprise to everyone that they picked up a heart problem,” his mother said.

Ms Stephens told the inquest that a scan revealed a “leaking valve”.

“Surgery wasn’t urgent is what they advised him,” she said.

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“It wouldn’t have affected him at all in early life, but later on in life he would have had a heart attack.”

Mr Joseph had the surgery in May 2017, having waited “nearly three years”.

Ms Stephens said he had been placed at “the bottom of the list” after he was registered as a new patient rather than an existing patient.

But Dr Martyn Heatley from Swansea Bay University Health Board said the “clinical picture would have determined” how patients were prioritised.

“During the night of 13 January when Mr Joseph was fighting for his life, his fiancee told me she was pregnant with his first child,” Ms Stephens added.

“If he hadn’t had this operation, would he still be here?”

Ms Stephens said her son “went for a game of football with his mates… happy and healthy, and he didn’t come home”.

Assistant Coroner Aled Gruffydd read a statement on behalf of Mr Joseph’s partner, Laura Davies.

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Ms Davies said she “felt very let down” by medical professionals.

“I do feel that these errors should not have happened,” she added.

“I have lost out on being with my partner and for him to be a father to our baby.”

The post-mortem report gave Mr Joseph’s cause of death as a cardiomegaly, which is an enlargement of the heart.

Sky News has asked Swansea Bay University Health Board for a statement.

The inquest continues.

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