A DUBLIN pensioner, found collapsed in a hypothermic state in her hallway, died from pneumonia, an inquest has heard.
Mary Collins (86) was found in her hall at Slemish Road by neighbour Rose Butler on December 19th. She was taken to the Mater hospital suffering from hypothermia and died seven days later.
Ms Butler had a key for Ms Collins’s home, and had entered it when she became worried about Ms Collins. “I found her lying in the hallway . . . she was frozen, the house was very cold.”
Dublin city coroner said Ms Collins was admitted to the Mater in a hypothermic state, where a CT scan confirmed she had fractured her pelvis. “She was probably lying on the floor for a considerable amount of time.”
A postmortem by consultant pathologist Dr Niall Mulligan found Ms Collins had died as a result of bilateral pneumonia and septic shock.
The coroner said Ms Collins’s fall had “started a train of events” first causing her to develop hypothermia and then pneumonia. He returned a verdict of accidental death due to a fall at her home.
