DEATH OF WOMAN AFTER FALL

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22636, 15 February 1939, Page 12

DEATH OF WOMAN AFTER FALL

VERDICT OP CORONER AT INQUEST

[From Our Own Reporter.]

WESTPORT, February 14. That Catherine Ryah died from shock resulting from hemorrhage from a wound in the occipital region of the head, accidentally caused by a .fall at her home on Sunday, was the verdict returned this afternoon by the Coroner (Mr G. Taylor) at the inquest into her death.

Mr J. P. Comerford gave evidence that on Sunday morning he went over to see if the woman wanted anything. He knocked at the front door and got no reply. He looked through the bedroom window and saw the woman lying on her back in a pool of blood. A piece of wood about 18 inches long was lying beside her and witness called John Menzies, who went into the house by a window. A doctor was summoned and the injured woman was removed to hospital. , In Mrs Ryan’s room there was blood over the floor, as if she had fallen down and cut her head and then walked about the room. Patrick Ryan, a son‘of Mrs Ryan, gave evidence that his mother had one or two accidents recently. On one occasion she fell and broke a wrist.

Corroborative evidence was given by John Menzies. Constable Condon, and Dr, Foote, who also said Mrs Ryan was unconscious and obviously suffering from hemorrhage and shock. He prescribed treatment which improved her condition, but she collapsed at 7 p.m. and died. The wound on the head was quite consistent with the belief that she had fallen off a chair

and struck her head on a sharp piece of iron/ There was nothing to suggest she had been struck a blow on the head by any other person.