A BASINGSTOKE pensioner died hours after he suffered a fall in hospital.

An inquest at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court heard how Robert Kenny had undergone a splenectomy, in which his spleen was removed, on August 11 and he had been making a steady recovery at Basingstoke hospital.

The 81-year-old, from Sherfield-on-Loddon, was staying in the C2 ward at the hospital, where he had moved to on September 5. The inquest heard that on September 9, Mr Kenny fell and hit his head in the en-suite wet room attached to the room he was staying in.

Hannah King, a health care assistant, who was looking after Mr Kenny during his stay, told the inquest: “At 9.45am, I answered the assistant bell coming from the bathroom. When I entered, his head was on the floor against the wall. We sat Robert up and checked for injuries. There were no cuts and observations were taken and recorded.

“The staff nurse hoisted Robert into a chair and took him into his room and put him into bed, and observations were taken and recorded and a doctor was present throughout.”

Miss King told the inquest that at around midday, when she went to check on Mr Kenny, he said he had a headache and he was given paracetamol for the pain.

Following a CT scan that was arranged for 1pm, staff nurse Dana Ball said that Mr Kenny appeared “low in his bed” and was “breathing differently”. The pensioner was given medication to control bleeding on his brain.

Miss King said that alarm bells were activated at 4.30pm and 4.50pm as Mr Kenny kept choking on his own saliva and a suction device was used to clear this.

She added: “At 5.10pm, the nurse bell was activated and we used suction. This was unsuccessful and he passed away minutes later.”

Andrew Bradley, coroner for North East Hampshire, told the inquest that Mr Kenny’s surgery to remove his spleen had been successful, “despite the fact he was 81” and he was making “significant progress” in his recovery.

He recorded a verdict of accidental death, with the cause of death noted as subdural haematoma.