Guru ‘predicted death of mother who got head stuck in railings’
Kimmy Varma, 64, died because she was stuck in a position where she could not breathe properly, an inquest was told.
Her family believe she had leaned out through the decorative railings to have a cigarette which she had often done before as she was fastidious about keeping her flat smoke-free.
But the mother of two, who was estranged from her husband, somehow got stuck in a position from which she could not free herself even though she pulled at the curtains so heavily that some screws came loose from their rail.
She is thought to have died about two hours before the alarm was raised by a jogger who spotted her from the road in Cheltenham in June.
Gloucestershire assistant coroner Caroline Saunders recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
After the inquest Mrs Varma’s daughter Pia said: ‘I never told my mum, but about a month before her death my aunt in India rang me to say she had been visiting a pundit who warned that mum should stay away from railings or something bad would happen to her within the month. It’s really eerie.’
Pathologist Dr Chandima de Cates told the hearing Mrs Varma died from ‘positional asphyxia’ after she had been drinking alcohol and had taken medication including painkillers.
Her blood alcohol level was 132mg. The legal limit for driving is 80mg. The alcohol may have affected her abilty to move her position to free her airways, the doctor believed. Coroner’s officer Kimmy Varma: She suffocated in decorative railings, circled Terry Onions said that when police broke down the door to get into and paramedics attended they Mrs Varma’s home. ‘I went into found Mrs Varma’s head through the living room and pulled the curthe railings ‘ compressing her tains and saw that it was a female,’ neck’. PC Jason Parker said he he said. ‘Her head was lodged between a vertical bar and another one which arced to the left.
‘I tried to lift her off the railings but she was too heavy and her neck was stuck in the groove in the railings.’ He said he was then helped by another officer and a paramedic to lift her body and free her from the railings.
PC Parker said some of the curtain rail screws had been pulled out and it looked as if Mrs Varma had tried to pull herself up by holding on to the curtain.
Det Sgt David Nicholls said he regarded the death as unexplained but there were no suspicious circumstances.
A report from South West Ambulance Service said they received the 999 call at 9.26am and were there within 12 minutes. Mrs Varma was confirmed dead at 9.41am.
A pathology report on Mrs Varma said anti-depressant and insomnia drugs found in her blood were at normal therapeutic levels.