Broken bone contributed to death of 100-year-old

Violet Williams had a broken thigh bone for weeks before her death

A broken leg contributed to an elderly woman's death, an inquest heard.

When Violet Williams, 100, died on 28 February, her thigh bone had been broken in three places for weeks, her family said.

They believe she sustained the injuries at Ash Lodge Care home, in Smethwick, where she had been residing.

Dudley Coroners Court recorded a narrative verdict and said Mrs Williams died of natural causes contributed to by a fracture of an unknown cause.

Mrs Williams was left with bone protruding from her knee when she was taken to hospital in pain on 1 February, her family said.

She was discharged to a different care home after an operation to straighten her leg, where she died a few weeks later.

A temporary death certificate, issued to the family, had indicated her death was due to heart disease, but listed a broken left thigh bone and hip joint among the wider causes.

Relatives of Ms Williams staged a protest outside the Ash Lodge Care home in Smethwick in May and said they could not understand how she sustained such injuries when she was totally dependent on others for her care.

They chose not to comment after the inquest verdict.

West Midlands Police conducted inquiries but said no criminal offences had been identified and it was now in the hands of the Black Country Coroner.

In a statement released after the inquest, Ash Lodge said it was confident it had provided the very best care to Mrs Williams during her stay, adding her medical care was supervised by her GP.

"The matter was reported at the time to adult safeguarding and the CQC directly by Ash Lodge. We have cooperated openly, fully and with complete transparency with all external investigations and will help with this in any way we can," it added.

"Mrs Williams was over 100 and, as with anyone this age, extremely frail and a fracture can occur from the simplest of actions, even turning over in bed. With regards to Mrs Williams, we may never know the cause of the fracture."