A VERDICT of accidental death was returned this week on an 82-year-old woman who twice fell from her nursing home bed.
An inquest at Okehampton heard that Vivienne Athene West suffered from Alzheimer's disease and had brittle bones. She had been bed-ridden for 12 months.
Mrs West was moved into the Barn Park nursing home, Halwill, on October 16, where coroner Richard Van Oppen said she received good, commendable care.
On November 8 she fell from the bed while being washed and later that week in a similar incident she again fell. As a result of these incidents Mrs West broke the neck of her femur.
She died on November 28 of a pulmonary embolism, a result of a right femoral vein thrombosis caused by the break — a common outcome of this type of injury in the elderly, said Mr Van Oppen.
Anna Scantlebury, manager of the nursing home, said in her statement that Mrs West was unable to do very much for herself and was lifted daily in and out of bed, fed and kept clean by staff.
On the morning of November 8, while she was being washed, Mrs West was rolled towards one of the two care assistants, but due to part of the mattress deflating, Mrs West rolled off the mattress.
Mrs Scantlebury said Mrs West did not seem distressed and had every appearance of being normal. She was carefully checked by a senior member of staff for injury.
On November 12, while again being washed, she was rolled towards the wall and, when apparently the care assistant was reaching for a flannel, Mrs West rolled back and off the mattress. Again Mrs Scantlebury said she was carefully checked and put back to bed. She said there was some sign of bruising from the previous fall, but she appeared normal in her habits.
Two days later the bruising came out and there was some swelling. The doctor was informed and Mrs West was taken to hospital by ambulance. She died two weeks later.
The coroner said he had checked carefully the treatment Mrs West had received at the nursing home. He said clearly it had been very good, even commendable.
Mrs West's son told the inquest he could not understand, with two care assistants present whenever his mother was moved, how she could come to fall not once, but twice.
Mr Van Oppen said the event that caused the injury needed only to be very slight and it was impossible to catch everybody all the time. He said how exactly she came to suffer that injury, whether during the first fall or the second, will never now be known.
He said he was satisfied Mrs West was not ill-treated, nor subject to any neglect. 'The care, although I am concerned with it, appears to me to be commendatory,' he said.
l A man from Northlew died from asphyxia during an epileptic attack, an inquest in Okehampton decided this week.
Lloyd Preston Zilwood, 54, apparently developed epilepsy following an illness in 1995.
The court heard that during the evening of November 5 last year he fell ill. It was reported he took his medication, but was found dead by his partner later the next afternoon.
A post-mortem examination found quantities of the drug in his blood were insufficient to have had a therapeutic effect.
The coroner, Richard van Oppen, recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.