Nursing home fall led to death of woman, aged 93 (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Nursing home fall led to death of woman, aged 93

A VERDICT of accidental death has been recorded on a 93-year-old woman who fell at her residential home in Chipping Campden.

Mabel Tompkins died on October 26 last year at Cheltenham General Hospital from bronchial pneumonia brought on by the fall, an inquest in Cirencester heard yesterday, Wednesday.

She had fallen six days earlier at the Four Seasons Residential Home, Back Lane, and become immobile.

Wendy Rose, a night care assistant at the home, said she had heard a fall above her and went upstairs to find Mrs Tompkins on the floor by her bed.

She said she helped her up and Mrs Tompkins, who suffered from osteoporosis, said she had slipped trying to sit .

Later that evening Mrs Tompkins had complained of a lot of pain in her left leg and had been taken to hospital.

Specialists at the hospital said an x-ray showed no sign of a fracture but that Mrs Tompkins developed a chest infection the day before she died.

Cotswold coroner Lester Maddrell said: "It is an accident but it is one that is attributable to her natural frailty.

"What might have been for a younger, fitter person just a bump had more serious consequences for her because of her great age and natural condition."