PATIENT’S FALL.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10727, 26 October 1928, Page 5

PATIENT’S FALL.

STRUCK PAVEMENT FROM

FIRST FLOOR HOSPITAL WINDOW.

DEATH HASTENED ONLY BY FEW DAYS.

(Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 25. On the night of October 13, Joseph Somer. a farmer of Fernsido, fell from the first floor window of the Public Hospital on to the street pavement below. He was carried ; back into hospital in a dying conditloAt the inquest which concluded' today, the’evidence of Dr Pearson was that death was due only partly to the fall, from winch merles and. shock were serious, and that he suffered also from atheroma, Or gradual thickening of the blood vessels and cerebral thrombosis, the softening of which would have caused death within a few days. The fall only hasten-; ed hteend and was a contributory * a Other evidence was that tsomer, with 27 Ather patients m tile ward, was in charge of a + probatioiier nurse , It was his habit to get out of bed find Walk ■ itboui) tlio ward. , The nurse stated she understood his illness had followed upon a paralytic stroke. He apparently got out of bed in heir .absence and tell out or found that, death was due to atheroma, cerebral thrombosis and softening, _ and shock associated with the injuries .received through falling out. of the window of the. Christchurch Hospital, a distance ’of thirty feet to the asphalt, below. t The coroner added that, in Ins opinioh, there Was ho evidence + of neglect on the part of the hospital authorities, or the nurs.es; . Dr. Tearfon’s evidence liad satisfied linn that the accident only hastened death by e few days.