Pavement fall led to wife’s death

3:36pm Thursday 12th April 2007

A PENSIONER broke her neck and died when she tripped over a kerb while out walking with her husband.

But after an inquest into his wife's death, Jean Cattle's husband insisted that the fall was an accident and was not caused by uneven paving.

An inquest heard that the fall may not have had such dramatic consequences for his wife if she hadn't been suffering from osteoporosis, which made her bones brittle.

Roy Cattle, of Buckingham Grove, Church, told the inquest that his 74-year-old wife had been diagnosed with the fragile bone condition following her retirement but it had not stopped her walking four or five miles every day.

On the day of the fall the couple had walked to the Bubble Factory at Oswaldtwistle Mills and were on their way home when she tripped over a kerb in Countess Street.

Mr Cattle said his wife fell flat on her face and immediately complained of pain in her neck. She was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital and then to Royal Preston Hospital. Mrs Cattle fractured three cervical vertebrae in the fall and these were putting pressure on the spinal cord. It caused partial paralysis and she subsequently developed bronchopneumonia, which was given as the medical cause of death.

Coroner Michael Singleton recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mr Cattle said he was not pursuing any legal action against the council because his wife's fall had been completely accidental.