mond2x: Injury from fall nine years earlier caused OAP's death

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Injury from fall nine years earlier caused OAP's death

THE death of an 85-year-old woman has been blamed on a serious fall at her home nine years earlier.

Marion Buckley, who was known as Audrey, died at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire on July 12, 2010, from sepsis due to infected pressure sores.

But North Staffordshire coroner Ian Smith yesterday recorded a verdict of accidental death, saying it had been a fall down the stairs at her Brown Edge home on April 14, 2001, which had ultimately led to her developing the health problems that killed her.

Mrs Buckley lived in the Brown Edge area all her life and her family owned the village butcher's shop, S Bratt Family Butcher, which was in business for 105 years until it closed in 2003.

An active and independent woman, she carried on working at the butcher's until the age of 76 when she broke her collarbone falling in the car park behind the shop in February 2001.

But her son Stephen Buckley, from Breach Road, Brown Edge, who ran the butcher's, said she was recovering well and was determined to return to work.

But then she fell down the stairs as she was going to bed and was not discovered until the next day when a paperboy heard her cries through the letterbox.

The fall left Mrs Buckley with a fractured neck and spine and for months she was paralysed from the neck down.

Mr Buckley said: "She was in agony. She couldn't stand anything coming into contact with her body. It was horrendous."

Eventually Mrs Buckley was moved to Bradwell hospital for long-term care and she started to regain some mobility.

Mr Buckley said: "Two years after the accident, I went in and she was standing with a frame. It was remarkable."

She started using an electric wheelchair and went to live at Rock Cottage Nursing Home in Brown Edge.

In May 2010, staff at the home noticed the beginnings of a pressure sore at the top of her buttocks.

Margaret Kirkham, the care home's manager, said Mrs Buckley had already been given a pressure-relieving mattress and cushion. This was changed to an alternating air mattress once the problem had been spotted and staff changed her position every two hours to try to prevent the sore getting worse.

But Mrs Kirkham said: "Unfortunately she often refused to lay on her side, which would have taken the pressure off the sacral area and would often turn on to her back."

She added staff had also stressed the importance of eating well, but Mrs Buckley claimed she had lost her appetite since getting dentures.

On June 21, 2010, Mrs Buckley complained of chest pains and was taken to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

She had suffered a heart attack and two days before her death her family were told she had developed septicaemia.

Mr Buckley said for the final few days of his mother's life she had been screaming in pain.

He said: "It was just terrible. I begged God to take my mum and within a few minutes she had gone."

Mr Smith said he did not blame care home staff for Mrs Buckley's infected sores.

He said: "There was no neglect. On the contrary, they have been very good to her.

"Pressure sores are nasty things. She was sometimes her own worst enemy, but she was 85 and I think she was entitled to make those decisions at her stage of life."

He said the fall in 2001 had restricted her mobility, which had led to her developing the pressure sores.