A ‘BELOVED wife’ and ‘adored’ mum died after suffering a head injury from falling downstairs at her home in Whitehaven, an inquest has heard. 

Diane Bell, 58, was found by her husband, Thomas Bell, at the bottom of the staircase at their home on Burnmoor Avenue in Whitehaven late in the evening on November 17, 2023, after a loud bang had woken him up. 

In a statement submitted to the Coroner’s Court in Cockermouth, Mrs Bell’s daughter, Kia Bell, said that she was ‘alert and awake’ immediately after the fall, but could not get up, and so Ms Bell called 999. 

Mrs Bell had been out socialising with friends that evening, having drunk four to five pints, and Ms Bell suspected that she had tripped over her jeans, which were ‘long and flared’, while walking downstairs.

She also said that Mrs Bell suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and Reynaud’s Disease. 

A paramedic from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), Rebecca Hodgson, received the call at 11.43pm, and arrived at Burnmoor Avenue at 00.08am, with a colleague.

Ms Hodgson assessed Mrs Bell, and found suspected fractures of her ankle and wrist, and a lump on the back of her head, with ‘a large amount of blood in her hair’. 

Ms Hodgson said they decided to take Mrs Bell to West Cumberland Hospital, leaving the scene at 00.43am. 

While travelling in the ambulance, Ms Hodgson became concerned an ‘underlying condition’ may be present as Mrs Bell’s blood pressure began to fluctuate, and her body temperature dropped. 

Ms Hodgson shared her concerns with the hospital, and on arrival, a clinical practitioner boarded the ambulance to assess Mrs Bell, and told the crew to take Mrs Bell to the trauma unit at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.

Mrs Bell insisted she was ‘fine’. 

On the way to Carlisle, Ms Hodgson’s concerns deepened, as Mrs Bell’s bruise on her head began to bleed more heavily, and she developed a ‘fixed gaze’ and ‘stopped responding’. 

The crew pulled over and immobilised Mrs Bell, and ten minutes from the hospital in Carlisle, Mrs Bell began ‘heavily vomiting, so paramedics removed her immobilisation kit and treated her. 

Upon arrival in Carlisle, she was handed over to the trauma team, and had a ‘reduced level of consciousness. A CT scan showed an acute subdural haematoma (bleed on the brain). 

Mrs Bell was then urgently transferred to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, due to its neurosurgery facilities, arriving there at 6.25am. 

A statement by consultant anaesthetist Dr Barry Paul at the RVI said that when she was assessed in Newcastle, doctors decided that any intervention would not change the outcome, and that it was ‘not a survivable brain injury’. 

He explained to Mrs Bell’s family that she would be on life support for 24 hours, and she was officially pronounced dead at 1.05pm on November 19. 

Area Coroner for Cumbria, Ms Kirsty Gomersal, concluded that Mrs Bell’s death was accidental, as it was ‘more likely than not’ that she tripped over her jeans and fell. 

She accepted the medical cause of death offered by Dr Paul as an acute subdural haemorrhage, caused by a fall.