Woman died after fall in cold

AN 89-year-old Heathfield woman died of hypothermia after falling outside her home on a freezing winter's day, an inquest heard.

Gwynnedd Wheale died at Eastbourne District General Hospital on November 23 last year. She was found outside her home in Collingwood Rise by neighbour Hugh Saunders just before midnight. She had fallen taking out her rubbish earlier in the day, knocking herself unconscious.

In a statement from Mr Saunders, read at the inquest at Eastbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday, he described the evening as 'bitterly cold' and how he saw a dustbin laying partly across the stricken pensioner.

Coroner Brendan Salsbury speculated she had slipped on ice and fell. He said: 'As she fell she cracked the back of her head which knocked her unconscious. As a result of being unconscious on that cold night, out in the air she lost her body temperature and was taken to hospital. She was suffering from hypothermia which proved ultimately to be fatal.'

The verdict: accidental death.