A PENSIONER died from brain injuries despite having what seemed to be an innocuous fall.

Bethan Thomas, of Morfa Lodge, Porthmadog, fell at home on Saturday, 18 July, and died at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor later the same day.

The 80-year-old was found on the floor of her living room by her community carer Sarah Haf Charters, an inquest at Caernarfon heard last Wednesday.

Although she was able to talk and was keen to get up from the floor, a post-mortem examination later rev­ealed she had suffered injuries bec­ause her brain had shrunk with age.

Aber Care carer Miss Charters told the inquest that she would visit Mrs Thomas each morning.

“She was quite independent,” she said.

“She was walking with a walking frame, but she was doing pretty well.

“By the time we had got there in the morning, she would have made her own breakfast and made a cup of tea so we would just talk to her.”

On 18 July, however, the carer discovered Mrs Thomas on the floor.

“She was already on the floor in the lounge,” she said. “There was tea on the carpet.

“She was talking and I called an ambulance. I put a blanket over her to keep her warm and put a pillow under her head.

“She tried to get up. She said she had fallen, but that was all she could say.”

Mrs Thomas’ walking frame was found by the side of her armchair, suggesting she had gone to make a cup of tea without it, Miss Charters suggested.

During questioning of the carer, the former shop owner’s family told the inquest that the widow had suffered a number of falls in the 18 months prior to her death

Miss Charters confirmed she had not seen anything Mrs Thomas could have tripped over.

Pathologist Dr Mark Lord told the coroner that his colleague Dr Mared Owen-Casey had carried out a post mortem on Tuesday, 21 July.

She found no evidence of any exter­nal head injuries, suggesting any fall would have been a relatively minor one, but she did discover damage to the left side of the brain and the brain stem.

Dr Lord said Mrs Thomas’ brain had shrunk with age causing it to move inside the skull, weakening and tearing blood vessels and connective tissue.

Concluding the inquest, coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said: “This is a very very common situation.

“We have an elderly person who falls at home. It was not a big fall, but she probably struck her head on the floor.

“She didn’t suffer a major injury but, as a person gets older, the brain shrinks and is therefore able to move inside the skull.

“That can tear membranes that are holding it in the skull and any shaking can lead to this bleeding.”

Recording a verdict of accidental death, the coroner gave the cause of death as bronchopneumonia and brain haemorrhage due to subdural haematoma.