OAP rushed to hospital after funeral chair fall

AN ELDERLY woman was rushed to hospital after tripping over her husband’s chair at a funeral.

Selina Batchelor, 73, was attending a reception at the Woodlands Hotel in Broughty Ferry with her husband, Jim, when the accident happened.

It led to her needing treatment in A&E at Ninewells Hospital and she is still recovering from the ordeal.

Retired delivery driver Jim, 72, said: “We were sitting at a table waiting for the food to come out and I got up and left my chair out. I didn’t even give it a moment of thought.

“When I got up, Selina came after me and fell over the chair.”

Hotel staff members attended to The Woodlands Hotel Selina after her fall, with one calling an ambulance, while others fetched her water and a fan.

Paramedics arrived five minutes after the 999 call was made.

They examined Selina in the hotel before taking her to Ninewells Hospital, where she was looked at by hospital staff before being given the OK to go home.

Looking back on the accident, which happened on Friday afternoon, Selina told the Tele she had “gone down like a ton of bricks”, landing on her hip — which she had replaced a few years ago — and hitting her head on another chair.

However, she was full of praise for both the staff at the Woodlands Hotel and the ambulance crew that attended to her after her fall.

She said: “The staff were absolutely brilliant. They couldn’t have done enough to help me.

“It was a silly mistake and the ambulance crew, two young girls, were very efficient.”

Jim said he had been “in the doghouse” for a few days after the accident, but added that he had now been forgiven.

He said: “Selina hasn’t been doing too great for the last few years and I had to retire because she hadn’t been keeping well.

“She’s been using a walking aid to get around. She hasn’t been able to walk around much since Friday — but she’s getting there.”

The pair, from the Claverhouse area, said they had been unable to get the names of the hotel staff that had rushed to Selina’s aid.

Jim said: “We’ll probably hand in a box of chocolates at some point.”

Nikki Robertson, general manager at the Woodlands Hotel, said: “We’re delighted to hear that Selina is on the road to recovery.

“It was nothing for us to look after her — that’s what we do. We’re pleased she’s going to be OK.”

A Scottish Ambulance Service spokesman confirmed an ambulance crew had attended at the hotel on Friday afternoon.

Selina recovering at home with Jim after her fall.