LING: HUSBAND BELIEVES WIFE DIED AFTER TRIPPING ON RAISED DRAIN COVER

A grieving husband is to sue a council because he believes his wife died after tripping over a raised drain cover, an inquest heard today (Tues).

Brenda Ling, 64, collapsed unconscious on the ground with a deep gash on her scalp as she returned home from a shopping trip with partner Harold.

Mrs Ling suffered a fractured skull and brain haemorrhage as a result of the fall and despite undergoing emergency surgery her family agreed for her life support to be switched off.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox said the manhole cover, which stuck out between ‘two and three-inches’ from the pavement surface, had been replaced following the incident on May 28.

Mr Ling, a retired British Rail chef, is pursuing a civil case for compensation against Ealing Council in west London, Westminster Coroners Court heard.

He was walking ahead of his wife and did not see her fall, but turned to find her collapsed on the ground close to the couple’s marital home in Haymill Close, Greenford.

The couple had been out shopping together and were walking to the house from their car about 1.30pm.

Mr Ling said: ‘I went back and held her head and, literally within minutes, the ambulance came.

‘There was no response whatsoever – she never came round.’

Mrs Ling was rushed to Ealing Hospital, where doctors performed a CT scan and discovered the extent of her injuries.

She was later transferred to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington to undergo surgery.

But her husband and son were told she stood a low chance of survival, and agreed for her to be removed from life support.

She died at 5.25pm on June 1, having never fully regained consciousness.

The inquest heard that nobody had witnessed the fall. Mrs Ling’s speech had also been slurred as the couple locked their car, suggesting she may have suffered a stroke.

Mrs Ling, a housewife, had also recently suffered a return of ovarian cancer, for which she underwent chemotherapy in 2009, and could have been ‘weakened’ as a result, it was said.

Consultant neuropathologist Dr Peter Wilkins told the hearing that Mrs Ling’s slurred speech could have indicated that she had suddenly suffered a stroke or other brain condition.

‘It may be simply the result of not enough oxygen getting to the brain,’ he said, adding that it was unusual for someone to fall backwards rather than forwards after tripping.

He added: ‘We know that the deceased had advanced ovarian cancer, and she is likely to have been weakened as a result of that – she may have been unsteady on her feet.’

Dr Wilcox recorded the cause of death as brain swelling, acute subdural haematoma and ovarian cancer.

‘Her husband, Mr Ling, is pursuing a separate claim for compensation against the council,’ she said.

But she added: ‘I can’t decide, on the balance of probabilities between any of these possibilities.

‘However she came to be on the floor, she sustained really substantial injuries.

‘We do not know whether she tripped on the drain cover or fell by any other mechanism; we do not know because there was no witness to the fall itself.

‘The symptoms, the slurred speech, could have been symptoms of a possible stroke or blood within the brain – or even a transient ischaemic attack.

‘Her ovarian cancer would have also left her weakened.

‘Persons who trip are normally found to fall forwards rather than backwards, and so I am left speculating on three possibilities as to how Mrs Ling ended up on the floor.

‘I am therefore forced to record an open verdict, since I am not allowed to speculate.’

Verdict: open

ENDS