Express & Star

'No-one should end their days like this': Family demand answers over death of 93-year-old at Cradley Heath care home

The family of a 93-year-old woman who was found dead at her care home today demanded more answers about the circumstances of her death.

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Margaret

A coroner ruled an open verdict due to ‘conflicting evidence’ after Margaret Janney was found dead at Roxburgh House Care Home in Cradley Heath on February 10.

Ms Janney’s niece said: “A number of serious questions remain unanswered.”

The pensioner, from West Bromwich, was said to have been found dead under her bed at Roxburgh Care Home in Cradley Heath.

Staff failed to call 999 after finding her dead and instead called the non-emergency 111.

Staff member Caroline Bomber, who was later dismissed from the home, told the Black Country Coroner’s Court earlier this week how she found Ms Janney on her left side beneath her own bed. Miss Bomber said she checked for a pulse before moving her on to the bed.

A post mortem of Margaret revealed she died due to acute left ventricular failure.

The inquest heard Dr Suhail Muzaffar, who performed Ms Janney’s autopsy, said she suffered a heart attack. Richard Follis, a partner in Access Legal Solicitors medical negligence team – representing the family at the inquest, said: “A number of serious questions remain unanswered. How did Margaret come to be on the floor? For how long did she lie there? When did she suffer multiple rib fractures? And when did she pass away?

“The inquest is the proper forum to ascertain these facts and may be the only chance the family have to get the answers they seek.”

Janice Bowes-Yarnall, Margaret’s niece and last living relative, was informed of her aunt’s death at 11.40pm on a Friday evening.

She said she was told in a brief telephone call, and in the next four days could get no more information following more telephone calls.

She said: “The questions about my aunt’s death keep going round and round in my head. Why were we told that my aunt was returned to bed to ‘preserve her dignity’ when clearly it was an attempt to present a misleading picture of the circumstances in which she died? My aunt was a dear, kind old lady – an active member of Beeches Road Methodist Church and a long standing worker with the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service. No one should end their days in a situation like this.”