THE family of a partially sighted woman who died following a fall are considering legal action.

Julie Ann Dutton, a well-known community worker from Ellesmere Port, slipped on an oily floor at a town store.

The 52-year-old was taken to hospital, where she developed fatal deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Her son, Mark, said after her inquest in Chester: 'I'm not happy about the way she was looked after in hospital.

'I will need to speak to the family about whether we should take this any further.'

Mrs Dutton, of Grace Road, was shopping in Homebargain on Marina Drive on December 19 last year when she slipped.

Shop assistant Alexandra Hunt said: 'A lady knocked a bottle of oil over. As I turned to get something to clean it with, I heard a lady slip and fall on the floor.

'We checked to see if she was OK. She said her legs were hurt. We cleaned the floor and called an ambulance.'

Despite her suffering from arthritis, being partially sighted and having a guide dog, Mark Dutton described his mother as 'fit and active'.

Last spring, she did a 17-mile walk for charity.

He said: 'She was always helping someone out.'

Mrs Dutton, the widow of psychiatric nurse John, was taken to a fracture clinic before being transferred to Ellesmere Port Hospital.

Her son visited twice a day, saying: 'She wouldn't complain but she had problems; her leg was hurting. She asked the nurses to loosen the bandages.'

He was arranging for her to come home just before she died.

Consultant physician Dr Pallipurathukaran Paul said, under normal circumstances, a patient would have been discharged sooner.

He said: 'She was kept in because of her eyesight. It may have hindered her mobility.'

Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg asked if any steps were taken to avoid Mrs Dutton developing DVT.

Mr Paul replied: 'In this case, steps were not taken - she was not bed-bound. She seemed to be doing OK.

'Because it was a fracture, she could transfer weight and wasn't sitting down all the time, medication was not considered.'

But Mr Dutton said: 'I only saw her mobile once. She sat there permanently with her leg up. I did not see nurses checking on her at all.'

Mrs Dutton collapsed on December 29 and was dead on arrival at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Mr Rheinberg said: 'DVT affected the calves in both legs and a section broke off and caused a mass thrombo-embolism. This would not have happened but for the injury.

'Immobility led to a pulmonary embolism due to the DVT of her two lower limbs.'

Ellesmere Port & Neston Primary Care Trust spokeswoman Anne Marie Storey said: 'We'd like to express our sincere condolences to Mrs Dutton's family.'

Verdict: Accident