A RETIRED teacher died after falling down the stairs at home, an inquest has heard.

Ann Margaret Owen fell down the stairs at her Glannau Tegid home in Bala on Thursday, 8 October, and died on Saturday, 10 October, at Royal Stoke University Hospital’s brain trauma unit.

The 66-year-old grandmother-of-two had first been taken to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, but was transferred to the specialist hospital when the extent of her injuries became apparent­.

Mrs Owen had extensive surgery at Stoke, including the removal of part of her skull, but she didn’t survive.

Giving evidence at an inquest into her death at Caernarfon last Wednesday, her husband, Gwyn Owen, told the coroner his wife had no problems with her balance and had seemed well on the day of her fall.

She had left her bedroom during the night and, when her husband found her at the foot of the stairs, she had a large bump on the back of her head and was unresponsive.

There were no tripping hazards at the top of the stairs, he said.

Pathologist Dr Mark Lord, who performed a post-mortem examination on Thursday, 15 October, found that Mrs Owen had banged the left side of her head during the fall, causing severe brain injuries.

He found no evidence of any illness that could have caused Mrs Owen to fall and said she hadn’t suffered a heart attack or any other serious medical episode.

Responding to questions from Mrs Owen’s family, Dr Lord said he could not rule out the possibility she may have fainted.

“The injuries were consistent with having fallen down the stairs and struck the left side of her head with some force, causing her to become­ unconscious,” he said.

The pathologist told the coroner that Mrs Owen’s brain had been “shaken within the skull”, began to bleed heavily and “stopped working”.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said he agreed with Dr Lord’s assessment.

He said: “Mrs Owen was at home and, in the dark, she left her bedroom, probably to go to the bathroom, and either on going there or returning she fell down the stairs.

“The problem is that she went head first. There was a massive blow to the head and that caused damage to the brain and it was shaken inside the skull causing considerable further damage.”

The cause of death was recorded as a head injury due to a fall