Mum, 55, died af ter tripping over kitten
A MOTHER died after trip- ping over her pet kitten, an inquest was told.
Vivian Archer, 55, fractured several ri bs i n the f all at her home.
She made several trips to hospital when she developed chest pain in the weeks after the tumble.
But in the days before her death she began to have trouble with her breathing and the healthcare assistant was found unconscious by her husband Graham.
She was rushed to hospital, where she later died of a combination of organ f ailure, pneumonia and blood poisoning.
Mrs Archer, of Warlingham, Surrey, had a history of depression and alcohol abuse and was on antidepressants, Woking Coroner’s Court heard.
She had also been left ‘ traumatised’ by her involvement in a fatal road accident last year, in which a motorcyclist in his 50s was killed.
Mrs Archer was unable to stop her car when the biker came off his machine ahead of her in the road and she ploughed into him. She was not found responsible for the death – but was banned from the roads after a test showed she was over the drink-drive limit.
Her son James told the inquest into her death: ‘She was well liked, a lovely person and she had a lot of friends. She did have some hard times, especially in the last years of her life but overall she was a happy person. She was quite down about what happened with the accident.’
Dr Mohammad Ameen, who carried out the post-mortem examination, told the inquest he had attributed Mrs Archer’s death to high levels of the anti-depressant drug Citalopram.
But assistant coroner Dr Karen Henderson said organ failure may have stopped Mrs Archer’s liver metabolising the drugs. ‘That is far more likely to be the case than anything else,’ she said.
‘I fail to see how the Citalopram could even be given as the primary cause of death given the clerical findings in life and those in death.’
She said it was ‘disappointing’ that the full circumstances of Mrs Archer’s hospital admission were not included in the post- mortem examination report.
Dr Henderson also ruled out any part played by alcohol in the death on November 12 last year, just weeks after the fall.
Summing up, she added: ‘I’m also satisfied on the evidence I have heard today that taking her own life, an overdose or anything like that did not play any part as to how she came by her death.
‘Mrs Archer was clearly a muchloved mother and wife, and it really is a testament to her that everyone who met her felt her to be warm and engaging.’
Recording a verdict of accidental death, she said the primary cause of death was multiple organ failure, followed by septicaemia and pneumonia.
‘She was a happy person’