A pensioner who survived COVID-19 has died after he fell in a Beaconsfield care home.
Paul Gentles passed away at the Sunrise Senior Living care home in Station Road, Beaconsfield, aged 87 on May 12, following a witnessed fall which took place a few months earlier.
An inquest into Mr Gentles’ death at Beaconsfield Coroners Court on Thursday heard how in January, he stood up with his Zimmer frame and fell over when he tripped over his own feet, breaking his hip.
A few days later Mr Gentles, who was born in Rugby, in Warwickshire, had surgery to repair the damage, but following the procedure his health continued to deteriorate.
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The court heard how before his fall, he had been an “active and chatty” man, but an infection to his injured hip left him bed-bound in the weeks before he passed away.
Assistant coroner Ian Wade said: “It does seem to me that it’s the left hip fracture that is really the start of Paul’s ultimate decline.
“It was not because of the care he was receiving – it was in spite of the care. They recognised Paul’s decline, they moved him to somewhere where he was under better observation and could be better helped with his dementia.
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“He never got rid of the infection in that hip, not helped by the fact that he acquired COVID-19.
“His frailty overcame him, and he passed away.”
The coroner ruled that Mr Gentles died from frailty of old age, with the cause an ac
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