A 99-YEAR-OLD woman died of pneumonia after a fall at a nursing home, an inquest heard.
Retired shirt-maker Margaret Stirrat cut her head open after tripping over at Phoenix House Care Home in Sandycroft in early February.
She remained at the Countess of Chester Hospital for two months, before passing away on April 8.
North East Wales coroner John Gittins said it is likely Mrs Stirrat, who suffered from dementia, sustained brain damage in the fall in the early hours of the morning.
Her daughter Shelley Sawkins, of Liverpool Road in Buckley, said she had suffered falls in the past because she ‘was always rushing everywhere’.
Mrs Sawkins, a nurse, said: “She was always fast on her feet, but she was faster than her feet would go.”
She told the inquest at Mold Mrs Stirrat was a mother of three originally from Barrhead near Glasgow.
Her two sons – Mrs Sawkins’ brothers – had both died and ‘she cried for her boys every day’.
She moved to Buckley in the late 1980s.
Mrs Sawkins added: “She was a feisty lady who came from a family of long-livers. I had no reason to think she wouldn’t live past 100.
“She had dementia but physically she was pretty OK. I think she’d probably still be going strong now.
“She always said she wasn’t ready to go yet, she’d say ‘I’m not 99 – I’m only 70!”
Mr Gittins said: “My view of this woman is that she was quite remarkable.”
Verdict: Accidental death.
