Published: Thursday, 29th May, 2008 1:23pm

OAP dies of head injuries after fall

by Annabel Williams

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A PENSIONER died from a fall after fasting for a hospital procedure.

But Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford said this week there was "no way of knowing" whether Stephen Hook was weak because of a lack of food.

Tuesday's Reading inquest heard Mr Hook was found by a care assistant in his room at The Boltons nursing home in College Road, on February 22.

He had fallen while going upstairs to bed on February 19, and was taken to Royal Berkshire Hospital by ambulance where doctors found a fracture in his right shoulder and bruising to the right side of his head.

The court heard the 86-year-old was fasting in preparation for a barium enema at the RBH the next day, part of an investigation for bowel cancer. He survived bladder cancer in the early 1990s.

Care home manager, Vijaye Juggurnauth, described Mr Hook as "somebody who enjoyed every single meal" but said he had eaten nothing but some pieces of bread and butter the day before his appointment.

The pensioner, a resident at the home since January 1999, was also given sachets of medication to clear his bowel.

A post mortem found Mr Hook died as the result of bleeding in his brain caused by a head injury and, recording an accident verdict, Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford said: "I couldn't say this happened because he was weak through lack of food. There is no way of knowing that.

"He could just as well as have tripped and fallen if he had had full meals that day."

Mr Bedford said there was no way of knowing whether the brain haemorrhage would have shown up on a CT scan.

But he said: "I do not believe it likely it would have been operable."

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