A FORMER Kendal postman died in hospital two weeks after falling downstairs at home, an inquest heard.

Christopher Hayton, 73, died at the Royal Preston Hospital on February 3, 2022.

His daughter and son-in-law called 999 having found him lying at the bottom of the stairs at around 1.45 pm on January 17.

He had retired from his job as a postman 13 years earlier and was home alone after his wife Christine had left for work that morning.

She had said in her statement submitted to the Coroner's Court at Cockermouth: "In the past year he was feeling his age and was struggling to walk long distances."

Matthew Selkirk, a paramedic from North West Ambulance Service, gave a statement to the court in which he described arriving on the scene at 1.55 pm. He found Mr Hayton 'face down on the bottom step'.

Mr Selkirk found no obvious signs of trauma apart from a small area of bruising to the ribs, with 'minimal' blood visible.

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A MRI scan showed Mr Hayton's fifth vertebra had 'almost completely' dislocated, causing a severe narrowing of the space for the spinal cord, and in turn, 'severe neurological consequences'.

Mr Hayton continued to deteriorate in hospital suffering a collapsed lung and possible infection until he was dependent on a ventilator to breathe, and likely to be a paraplegic if he survived, the inquest heard.

His family and medical team decided to remove critical care and Mr Hayton died shortly after on February 3.

Assistant Coroner for Cumbria Dr Nicholas Shaw concluded: "His health had been declining and he was admitted to hospital after a fall down the stairs at his home on January 17, 2022, when a suffered a dislocation of the cervical spine. 

"Despite the best efforts of the trauma surgeons and critical care doctors at Preston, he died on February 3, 2022.

Accidental death was declared, with the cause judged to be cervical spine trauma, causing heart failure.

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