Pensioner in wheelchair died after falling from back of ambulance at hospital, inquest hears

• Natalie Gray reports for ITV News Anglia

A woman died after falling from a wheelchair being transferred from the back of an ambulance, an inquest heard.

Anita Woodford, 66, was being rolled down a ramp at the back of a stationary ambulance when the chair toppled over.

An inquest was told that the wrong wheelchair was used when she arrived at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital for a non-urgent dialysis appointment on 15 November, 2021.

She hit her head after the wheelchair tipped over and she died two weeks later.

A jury recorded a conclusion of accidental death, "caused by trauma which likely accelerated underlying pre-existing conditions and probably contributed to the timing of her death".

In CCTV footage shown at the inquest, Mrs Woodford, from Brisley in Norfolk, was wheeled in the chair down the ramp when it hit the bottom and suddenly jolted backwards.

The wheelchair - a hospital porter model - was wheeled by ambulance care assistant Tracey Leigh, who was subsequently suspended and fired.

Ms Leigh was visibly upset while giving evidence at the Norfolk Coroner's Court inquest in Norwich.

Speaking via video link, she said: “I was going down the ramp and, I don’t know what happened, but when I got to the bottom the wheelchair tipped backwards.

“All I know is that it tipped, and I could not hold it. I’ve done that job a hundred times before and nothing like that had ever happened before.”

She however admitted that due to the weight and size of the porter wheelchair, she would not have been able to stop it from tipping backwards.

The court heard how Ms Leigh had received training on best practices for loading and unloading patients.

ERS Medical, the firm which provided the patient transport service, had alerted staff to the risk of using porter wheelchairs rather than the one provided on its vehicles.

Ms Leigh added: “I never thought in a million years this would happen.

“We all used the hospital wheelchairs to transport patients.

“I had done nothing differently that day than what I had done on any other day.”

She also claimed that ERS Medical management had been aware of its staff using porter wheelchairs for unloading patients from ambulances at hospital.

She was fired following an internal investigation.

Mrs Woodford's husband of 45 years, Graham Woodford, attended the three-day inquest.

In a statement, he said the couple had travelled the world together and that she was a devoted dog owner.

He added that over the years she had suffered from depression following bereavements, this being a key trigger of her mental ill health.

As a result, she had gradually turned to alcohol but “did not accept she had a problem”.

In 2019, she retired from her job working at Elmham Surgery, near Dereham, where she had been employed for 25 years.

Following a visit to her GP in August 2021 she was admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich hospital with several health problems related to alcoholism, including severe liver disease.

She was discharged home on 12 November that year.

On the morning of 15 November, she had been collected by Ms Leigh and a colleague for a hospital appointment.

Following the incident, Mrs Woodford sustained a head and neck injury and was given a CT head scan, before being kept in hospital overnight.

Eight days earlier, on 7 November, she underwent the same test which had shown a small amount of bleeding on the brain.

Following the injury to her head, CT results showed a further bleed.

Her condition deteriorated and she died at home on Nov 29.

Dr Curtis Ofiah, a consultant at the Royal London Hospital, told the inquest that Mrs Woodford was considered to have “a number of high-risk factors” leaving her susceptible to bleeding.

In his statement, Mr Woodford paid tribute to his wife.

He said: “She was loving, kind, caring, considerate, and conscientious.  

“She will always be loved and remembered and never forgotten.”

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