Bridesmaid died after falling on day of wedding
A BRIDESMAID died after suffering a devastating brain injury after falling and hitting her head on her brother’s wedding day, an inquest heard.
Sammie Bowman, 22, was helping her mother Debra with last minute arrangements when she had a seizure and collapsed, falling over backwards onto a concrete surface.
The wedding party had gathered at Eastfield Farm Cottages at Thornton, East Yorkshire on May 31 to get ready for her brother Andrew’s marriage. They had had their hair and make-up done and taken photos, when Mrs Bowman, went out to her car with her daughter to sort out some clothes and buttonholes.
In a statement Mrs Bowman said: “She began to act very strangely, she rolled her fingers round her eyes like she was trying to swat a fly. She fell straight backwards onto her back.
“She made no attempt to save her fall and I heard a very loud bang as she hit her head on the ground.”
Ms Bowman, from Holme-onSpalding Moor, was rushed to York Hospital in a critical condition where a scan revealed a large blood clot immediately beneath the bone of the skull.
Although the prognosis was poor, doctors decided to operate in a bid to save her life at Hull Royal Infirmary.
She had surgery, but her injuries were “incompatible with life” and she died on June 2.
The inquest heard that her collapse may have been caused by alcohol withdrawal, and her life had been blighted by an eating disorder, from the age of 12, which involved binge-eating and purging. At one stage her weight plummeted to under seven stone.
Ms Bowman had been admitted several times for in-patient treatment for eating disorders at units in York and Sheffield. In March she admitted to her psychologist that she was drinking up to a litre of rum per day.
Assistant Coroner Lorraine Harris gave a narrative verdict, concluding that a medical episode caused a fall where she “struck her head causing a severe brain injury incompatible with life”.
Outside the court her father Alistair Bowman paid tribute to his daughter who was “always laughing and bubbly and loved life.”