Preston mum died of head injury from accidental fall down the stairs of her home

The inquest was told that the 56-year-old from Ribbleton had not been feeling well the day of her death.
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Annette Conner was found unconscious at the foot of her stairs by her son on the evening of October 16 2021.

The inquest, held at Preston Coroner's Court, heard how only a few minutes earlier Annette had been downstairs with her son at her home on Benton Road in Ribbleton.

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Area coroner Richard Taylor said: "She told her son that she felt tired and was going upstairs to watch television.

56-year-old Annette Conner's inquest was held at Preston Coroner's Court on Tuesday.56-year-old Annette Conner's inquest was held at Preston Coroner's Court on Tuesday.
56-year-old Annette Conner's inquest was held at Preston Coroner's Court on Tuesday.

"She went upstairs and her son heard a bang and a crash, he rushed out and saw his mother lying on the floor of the stairs."

The coroner said that after Annette's son contacted the emergency services, the paramedics took her to Royal Preston Hospital.

Doctors at the hospital then took Annette for a scan which showed she had suffered a "brain haemorrhage and multiple skull bone fractures".

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Annette was incubated and ventilated, and after consultation with the neurosurgical registrar, it was concluded that her "brain injury was a terminal event, no surgery options were available".

She was then transferred to the critical care unit, where she passed away on the 17th.

The coroner added that Annette had never had a previous fall, and whilst she may have had a drink on Saturday night, it was thought to be only "some wine, maybe a gin."

Annette had spent the day of her fall with her daughter, Kirsty, and had been acting slightly differently, as the coroner said: "She told me that her mother was off work on the 16th October, that she had gone with her mother for an eye test but she wasn’t feeling very well and wanted to sit down."

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The doctor offered the medical cause of death to be "devastating brain injury due to trauma".

At the end of the inquest, the coroner said that Annette's fall on the 16th caused her death on the 17th, adding there was "nothing to suggest anything other than an accidental death so I return the verdict that it was an accident and confirm she died of head injuries sustained from an unwitnessed fall at her home.”