INQUEST AT HOSPITAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22205, 7 March 1934, Page 9

INQUEST AT HOSPITAL

WOMAN FATALLY BURNED An inquest on the body of Jessie Buchanan Chapman, who died in the Hospital on Monday night after being admitted for treatment for burns received at her home in Valley road, Kaikorai, on Sunday, was held yesterday afternoon before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., sitting las coroner. Sergeant Vaughan represented the police. Frederick Wallace Chapman, husband of the deceased, gave evidence of identification.—Charles William Chapman, son of the previous witness, said that on Sunday morning he heard screams coming from the washhouse, where his mother was working. He ran out and saw his mother standing in the doorway. Her clothing from the waist up was in flames and she held a flaming box of matches in her hand. He threw some water oyer her and put the flames out. A neighbour came in and applied oil to the burns on his mother's body. A doctor was called and he ordered her removal to the Hospital. His mother told witness that she had been cleaning a dress with petrol. She had lit a match and the petrol had caught Sre. Witness had been unable to find any dress in the washhouse.—Dr Mulinder said that he had treated the deceased's burns when she was admitted to the Hospital.—The coroner returned a verdict that death was due to shock and the absorption of toxins following burns.