Brisley woman dies after falling from ambulance at N&N

Anita Woodford, 66, was being removed from the parked vehicle in a wheelchair when the tragedy happened.

A three-day inquest into her death, which opened in Norwich yesterday, heard she had been placed in the wrong wheelchair and that it toppled as she was being rolled down the ramp.

Mrs Woodford had been taken from her home in Brisley, near Dereham, in a non-emergency ambulance for a dialysis appointment at the N&N when the incident happened, on the morning of November 15, 2021.

On arrival at the hospital, the inquest - which is being held with a jury - heard how Mrs Woodford was given a hospital 'porter' wheelchair before an ambulance care assistant loaded her off the vehicle.

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of the moment the assistant, Tracey Leigh, guided the porter chair with Mrs Woodford back down the ramp before it hit the bottom and fell violently backwards.

Anita Woodford (Image: Much Loved)

Miss Leigh, of Ridall Close, Norwich, who gave evidence at Norfolk Coroner’s Court via video link, was visibly upset as she recalled the details of the incident. 

“I was going down the ramp and, I don’t know what happened, but when I got to the bottom the wheelchair tipped backwards,” she said.

“All I know is that it tipped, and I could not hold it. 

“I’ve done that job a hundred times before and nothing like that had ever happened before.”

Mrs Woodford suffered a head injury in the fall and died two weeks later.

The court heard how Miss Leigh had received training on best practice of loading and unloading patients, and that ERS Medical - the firm which provided the patient transport service - had alerted staff to the risk of using porter wheelchairs rather than the one provided on its vehicles. 

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (Image: Mike Page)

She also admitted that due to the weight and size of the porter wheelchair she would not have been able to stop it from tipping backwards.  

Miss Leigh added: “I never thought in a million years this would happen. 

“We all used the hospital wheelchairs to transport patients. 

“I had done nothing differently that day than what I had done on any other day.” 

She also claimed that ERS Medical management had been aware of its staff using porter wheelchairs for unloading patients from ambulances at hospital.

Following an internal investigation, Miss Leigh was suspended and subsequently fired. 

Anita Woodford (Image: Much Loved)

Mrs Woodford’s husband of 45 years, Graham Woodford, attended the inquest in person. 

In a statement, he said they had travelled around the world enjoying many holidays together and that she was a devoted dog owner.  

He added that over the years she had suffered from depression following bereavements, this being a key trigger of her mental ill health. As a result, she had gradually turned to alcohol but “did not accept she had a problem”. 

In 2019, she retired from her job working at Elmham Surgery, near Dereham, where she had been employed for 25 years. 

Following a visit to her GP in August 2021 she was admitted to the N&N with several health problems related to alcoholism, including severe liver disease.  

She was discharged home on November 12 that year. 

ERS Medical (Image: Newsquest)

On the morning of November 15, she had been collected by Miss Leigh and a colleague for a hospital appointment. 

Following the incident, Mrs Woodford sustained a head and neck injury and was given a CT head scan, before being kept in hospital overnight. 

Eight days earlier, on November 7, she underwent the same test which had shown a small amount of bleeding on the brain. Following the injury to her head, CT results showed a further bleed.

Her condition deteriorated and she died at home on November 29.

Dr Curtis Ofiah, a consultant at the Royal London Hospital, told the inquest that Mrs Woodford was considered to have “a number of high-risk factors” leaving her susceptible to bleeding. 

In his statement, Mr Woodford paid tribute to his wife. He said: “She was loving, kind, caring, considerate, and conscientious.  

“She will always be loved and remembered and never forgotten.”  

The inquest continues.