Marine fitness review 'is needed'

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Physical fitness testing for the Royal Marines urgently requires tightening, a coroner has said following the death of a serviceman sent to Iraq.

Oxfordshire deputy assistant coroner Andrew Walker spoke out after hearing Major Stephen Ballard had an undetected heart condition but served in the Navy.

Maj Ballard, 33, died in 2003. He had eight months off with a broken leg, but went to Iraq without a fitness test.

Mr Walker said the soldier "should not have been [declared] fit".

He said it "cannot be allowed to happen (again)".

Maj Stephen Ballard, whose a heart condition that went unnoticed by medics, died of a heart attack in March 2003 after co-ordinating battle operations in southern Iraq.

Oxford Coroner's Court heard that the serviceman suffered from primary cardiomyopathy - a weakening of the heart muscle which resulted in an arrhythmia.

It emerged that the defect was overlooked by medics in 1997 when Maj Ballard underwent a diving medical.

The inquest also heard that an ECG (electrocardiogram) test, to measure heart rhythm, in 2002 after he broke his leg would also have revealed this problem.

However, Maj Ballard was cleared by a Naval medic in March 2003 to deploy to the Gulf despite his physical fitness and underlying medical complication going unchecked.

Mr Walker, who is deputy assistant coroner for Oxfordshire, said: "In all cases where someone has been downgraded, for whatever reason, they should be retested.

"This cannot be allowed to happen (again)."

He said he would be recommending that this be "addressed as a matter of urgency".