Woman (64) died days before she was found, inquest hears

A 64-year-old woman who fell at home was dead for between two and three days before she was found, Dublin Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday.

An inquest was told Mary Fitzgerald, of Windmill Park, Crumlin, Dublin 12, died as a result of internal blood loss from a fracture and dislocation of her left hip following a fall.

The court heard Ms Fitzgerald’s son Seán called to her house on December 10th, 2015, to collect her and bring her to the shops, as he did every week.

Mr Fitzgerald became concerned when his mother did not answer the door.

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He then looked in the window and saw her on the ground.

On gaining entry to the house, he found a lot of post on the floor and his mother lying beside the couch. She was unresponsive.

Ms Fitzgerald was later pronounced dead at the scene.

The inquest heard a postmortem report found Ms Fitzgerald had suffered a bad break of her left leg.

The coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, told the inquest Ms Fitzgerald had suffered an awkward fall, resulting in the fracture and the dislocation of her hip.

Dr Cullinane said Ms Fitzgerald had bled heavily internally and lost 500ml of blood into the soft tissue surrounding the injury.

She was unable to move after the fall and died some time later.

Ms Fitzgerald also developed hypothermia after the fall, but the coroner noted that neither this nor alcohol she had drunk earlier were directly responsible for her death.

Accidental death

Dr Cullinane returned a verdict of accidental death, because the fall was an accident which could have happened with or without the consumption of alcohol.

“Unfortunately, she broke her hip and couldn’t get out of that position. She seems not to have died instantly, as we know the alcohol was leaving her system,” Dr Cullinane said.

She said Ms Fitzgerald was likely to have been unconscious as her blood pressure was falling due to the internal bleeding, which also resulted in cardiac and respiratory arrest.

“It was a combination of factors. She suffered a fall and a bad break, it was bleeding and she is likely to have been unconscious at this stage,” the coroner said.