A 93-year-old widow broke her arm after a fall at her home in Burton and later died, an inquest into her death has heard.
Beryl Scott, of Osbourne Court, in Calais Road, died on November 23, 2017, after she never recovered from an operation to repair her fractured arm. She fell while walking from the kitchen to the living room in her home.
Her inquest, held at Burton Town Hall, heard she had the fall and was taken to Burton's Queen's Hospital where she needed surgery to manipulate the fracture.
After the operation, which was done under general anaesthetic, the retired factory worker struggled to recover and developed breathing difficulties. Mrs Scott, whose husband William died in 2000, was cared for by the respiratory team at the hospital where she received treatment, but nothing could be done to help her and she was moved into palliative care.
Mrs Scott did have previous health problems, including having had a stroke, the hearing was told.
Her family praised the hospital for how Mrs Scott was treated during in her final days.
Margaret Jones, assistant coroner for South Staffordshire, said that general anaesthetic was always going to be stressful for Mrs Scott but she needed to have the surgery.
She recorded that Mrs Scott's death was accidental and the result of type two respiratory failure and heart failure due to a fractured dislocation of the left humerus. Secondary causes of her death were a stroke, atrial fibrillation, frailty and vulval cancer.
