Fainting while coughing - cough syncope - is rare, but Lim says he sees it at least four or five times per year.

Steinfort has seen cases of cough syncope and believed the symptoms suffered by Farquharson were a "classic" example.

Farquharson's thoracic medicine specialist, Chris Steinfort, also concluded it was "highly likely" that his patient haD suffered from cough syncope on the night.

He further testified that coughing to the point of blacking out is an extremely rare condition, known as cough syncope, and that Farquharson was unlikely to have suffered such an attack while driving given the warmth of his vehicle.

He later conceded, however, that he had never seen cough syncope, would not know how to take a history to determine it and was sceptical even of its existence, a consideration not backed up by others in the same sphere of medicine.