AN ELDERLY woman died as a result of cutting her leg on a wheelchair, an inquest heard.

Ellen Eade, 86, was a resident at the Ravenscroft Care Home, when she died in June last year after suffering a deep vein thrombosis. An inquest held in Devizes on Friday heard that Mrs Eade cut her left calf while being helped into a wheelchair by staff on May 22.

According to a pathologist's report it was this that led to her death 10 days later. Mrs Eade, who had been at Ravenscroft since the beginning of April, was often confused and suffered from a number of ailments associated with old age.

Staff nurse Deborah Reid told the inquest: "Me and a carer helped her to her feet and then lowered her into the chair. She then swayed heavily and dropped into the chair, although not from any great height. "I did not see her leg come into contact with the chair. "We took her to the toilet, and in the bathroom I noticed blood running down her leg, and a two inch skin tear."

After sustaining the wound Mrs Eade's health took a turn for the worse and she became lethargic and had difficulty eating. According to GP Janet Slack, although Mrs Eade seemed to be going downhill, there were no real concerns about the laceration, as it appeared to be healing well. But Mrs Eade was found dead in her bed in the early hours of the morning of June 1.

A post mortem concluded that she had died from a pulmonary thrombosis embolism caused by a DVT in her left leg, as a result of the cut.

Sgt Steven Jones, of Trowbridge police, later inspected the wheelchairs at the care home and could not find faults or defects with any of them. Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner David Masters said: "There is no unanimous evidence that supports a defect in the wheelchair, but I have no doubt that there was contact with the wheelchair and her leg. Because of an unexpected event, an accident which nobody expected, Mrs Eade did meet her death."