DEATH FROM SKULL FRACTURE

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27583, 14 February 1955, Page 9

DEATH FROM SKULL FRACTURE

MAN CHARGED WITH DRUNKENNESS (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 12. “I think Coleman was treated extremely well, and no-one could have suspected he had a fracture of the skull,” said Mr W. G. L. Mellish, the Wellington Coroner, yesterday, at an inquest into the death of Thomas Coleman, aged 59, a labourer. Coleman was arrested for drunkenness on December 20, but was later found to have a fractured skull. He died in the Wellington Hospital on December 29. Leonard Richard Able, a police constable, said he saw Coleman in a cake shop in Wellington on December 20. He appeared to be drunk, and Constable Able asked him to leave the shop. The witness said he later found Coleman in a lavatory. He had his head in his hands. He could not speak properly, and showed all the symptoms of intoxication. After his appearance in the Magistrate’s Court, Coleman was sent to Mount Crawford Prison. Other evidence by prison officials was that, when admitted to the prison, Coleman appeared to be dazed. After examination by the prison doctor, Coleman was taken to hospital, where he was operated on for a fracture of the skull. Dr. P. P. Lynch, a pathologist, said that Coleman had been suffering from a fracture of the skull and laceration of the brain. The Coroner found that Coleman had died frqm laceration of the brain caused by a fracture of the skull, probably the result of a fall.