Spire doctors thought Norwich woman's fall was fainting

Tamsin Woolsey-Brown, known as Tam, died in June last year after suffering a fall while recovering from a knee replacement operation at Spire Hospital. She was 78.

On the second day of a three-day inquest into her death, the court heard the retired nursery teacher had fallen backwards while being accompanied to the toilet by a nurse.

She twice lost consciousness - first during the fall and then again after she was helped back into bed - but remained in the hospital that night under observation.

But the court heard that a breakdown in communication between staff on shift, her on-call surgeon and the anaesthetist in her operation had led to the incident initially being dismissed as "simple fainting".

Giving evidence in court, surgeon Ben Davis said he had been contacted by ward staff on more than one occasion during the night to update him on her condition.

But he said that the initial information he had been given had led him to believe it was "a simple fainting".

John Harrad, her anaesthetist also received calls overnight and admitted to being given a similar impression.

During the previous day's hearing, Mrs Woolsey-Brown's nurse Evelyn Sibley had told the court she had found Mr Davis to be "obnoxious".

In response to this, Mr Davis said in his own evidence: "I found communication with her very challenging and it was very difficult to get straight answers from her.

"She would ramble and it was difficult to get the information I needed from her so had to ask short, direct answers.

"If Nurse Sibley interpreted that as being obnoxious then I apologise, but my concern was for the patient."

It was not until later than night, when Mrs Woolsey-Brown lost consciousness again that she was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, where her condition deteriorated and died.

A CT scan carried out at the N&N - which was not available overnight at Spire - revealed she had suffered a catastrophic brain injury in her fall.

The inquest continues.