AN ELDERLY woman died from a blood clot on her brain after she fell at the nursing home where she lived.

Staff at Dove Court, Shuttleworth Street, Burnley, told an inquest in Burnley it is believed Mrs Sarah Knight, 77, could have fallen while she was trying to sit on a stool in the residents' conservatory.

She hit her head on the radiator regulator and was found sitting on the floor by care assistant Patricia Rowley.

Mrs Knight had been a resident at Dove Court for two-and-a-half years and had suffered from diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease.

Her husband, Arthur, of Forest Street, Burnley, said he saw his wife in April, a fortnight after he got out of hospital. He got a phone call on May 3 from the home to say she had fallen, but seemed to be OK.

A second call said before paramedics took her out of the home to go to Burnley General Hospital she had fallen unconscious. Mrs Knight died in hospital on May 17.

Sister Frances Fielding, from Dove Court, said Mrs Knight was not capable of telling staff what had happened or where she was hurt and did not indicate that she was in any pain.

Sister Fielding and Mrs Rowley helped Mrs Knight on to a settee, where she was examined and Sister Fielding found a small cut on her head and applied pressure to stop the bleeding and called for paramedics.

She said there was blood on the regulator of the radiator and on the floor.

Pathologist Dr Abdul Al-Dawoud said Mrs Knight had suffered a previous stroke, a heart attack and had gallstones, but the cause of death was given as the blood clot which occurred when she suffered the head injury.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, East Lancashire coroner David Smith said: "It seems to me that what has happened has been a pure accident."

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