A GRIEVING Criccieth pensioner with anxiety issues and a drink problem suffered a brain haemorrhage after falling at home, an inquest heard.

Maureen Josephine Patricia Thomas, of Arvonia Terrace, had blamed herself for her mother’s death following a fall and feared she herself would die and began drinking on a regular basis.

The 72-year-old was often unsteady on her feet and her husband became so concerned about her that he would walk behind her on the stairs when they went to bed to ensure she didn’t fall backwards.

An inquest at Caernarfon last Wednesday heard how the retired revenue accounts assistant took ill two days after falling, dying in hospital a few days after her life support was withdrawn.

In a statement read out to the coroner, her husband David Thomas told how Mrs Thomas had numerous health issues and had really struggled following the death of her mother, who had moved to Criccieth so the couple could be closer to her in her old age.

His wife had at various stages suffered with heart failure, a kidney malfunction and severe gout but Mr Thomas felt she mostly recovered from these conditions and “was generally fit and well and lived a normal life”.

However, she began to experience “anxiety about her mother’s death” following a fall and started drinking a lot because of “guilt about her mother’s death.”

Mr Thomas said: “She was anxious about her health and was asking: ‘Am I going to die?’”

Her husband banned drinking in the home but Mrs Thomas fell back into problematic habits.

“I shocked her by filling 12 shot glasses and taking them to her on a tray to show her how much she was drinking,” he said.

On the night Mrs Thomas fell, her husband said she had a bottle of wine and was unsteady.

“I saw her tottering,” he said. “She lost her balance and fell on the floor. I can’t recall her hitting her head.”

Mr Thomas said he spoke to his wife for around an hour after the fall and she seemed fine so they both went to bed.

The following day Mrs Thomas appeared to be well and the couple went shopping together but that night she went to bed with a slight headache. When Mr Thomas went to her the next morning he found her “unconscious but breathing.”

At Ysbyty Gwynedd, Mrs Thomas was found to have a major bleed on the brain and was put into an induced coma.

However, when she was brought out of the coma, the pensioner was found to have only three per cent brain function. A few days later, on 15 August, she died in hospital.

Pathologist Dr Mark Lord carried out a post mortem examination and found Mrs Thomas had suffered a brain haemorrhage as a result of the fall and that it was not spontaneous.

Explaining the time lapse between the incident and the 72-year-old falling ill, he said: “It’s not uncommon to see an interval of 24 to 48 hours as blood gathers around the brain in the skull before it produces symptoms of pressure.”

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said Mrs Thomas had died because of an “intracerebral haemorrhage due to a fall.”