'Loving and kind' pensioner died when she fell from the back of an ambulance and hit her head
26 April 2023, 10:35
A woman in her 60s died after she fell out of the back of an ambulance on her head, an inquest has heard.
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Anita Woodford, 66, was being transported from the ambulance to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital from home in Brisley for a dialysis appointment.
She was put in the wrong wheelchair and rolled down the ramp when the ambulance arrived at hospital.
Jurors at the inquest were shown CCTV footage of the moment care assistant Tracey Leigh tried to take Ms Woodford down the ramp out of the ambulance.
Ms Woodford rolled down the ramp before hitting the ground and falling backwards sharply.
She hurt her head in the fall and died two weeks later.
Ms Leigh told Norfolk Coroner’s Court: "I was going down the ramp and, I don’t know what happened, but when I got to the bottom the wheelchair tipped backwards.
"All I know is that it tipped, and I could not hold it.
"I’ve done that job a hundred times before and nothing like that had ever happened before."
Ms Leigh said she had been trained on best practice of taking patients in and out of ambulances.
She added: “I never thought in a million years this would happen.
"We all used the hospital wheelchairs to transport patients. I had done nothing differently that day than what I had done on any other day."
Ms Leigh was suspended and then fired after an internal investigation.
Mrs Woodford sustained a head and neck injury. She was given a CT scan and was kept in hospital overnight. She died at home on November 29 after suffering a bleed on the brain.
Her husband Graham Woodford said: “She was loving, kind, caring, considerate, and conscientious.
"She will always be loved and remembered and never forgotten." The inquest continues.
