Woman dies after fall in her Winnersh home
AN ELDERLY woman from Winnersh died after suffering a fall in her home, an inquest has heard.
Elizabeth Jean Jones, 80, of Robinhood Lane, died on March 4 this year after collapsing at home.
The inquest into her death, held at Reading Town Hall on Tuesday, June 13, heard how Mrs Jones had an active lifestyle but in the months leading up to her death her memory had started to deteriorate, for which she sought medical advice.
The coroner, Ms Alison McCormick read out a family statement which said that the day before her death, Mrs Jones’ son came home to find her alone in the living room, confused and saying that she didn’t know where she was.
He reassured her and took her to bed, where she said she ‘felt like a fool’ and put the episode down to having fallen asleep in her chair and being startled by her son arriving home.
In the early hours of the following morning, Mrs Jones suffered a fall as she was making her way to the bathroom. She was able to get herself up and called her son who took her back to bed.
At around 7.15am she asked him to help her back to the bathroom, but she was having difficulty sitting up and speaking, so her son called an ambulance.
Once the ambulance arrived, Mrs Jones had fallen unconscious and she was rushed to the Royal Berkshire Hospital where a CT scan revealed an acute-on-chronic subdural haematoma, and her family was told that there was nothing that could be done to save her.
Mrs Jones was made comfortable and passed away shortly after 1pm.
A post-mortem held on March 15 revealed the extent of the subdural haematoma and evidence of atrial fibrillation.
Summing up, Ms McCormick said: “Elizabeth Jones had no history of falls and was mobile. On the morning of her death she suffered an unwitnessed fall on her way to the bathroom, and later she lost consciousness.
“I am satisfied with the medical cause of death being an acute-on-chronic subdural haematoma, sustained from a head injury.”
Mrs Jones’ death was recorded as an accident.