A MUM of six and former Carlisle Market Hall trader died almost two months after sustaining a head injury in a fall a care home in which she was a resident.

Iris Alethea Watson, 90, died on July 8, 2024, at Kingston Court Care Home on Newtown Road in Carlisle.

Mrs Watson had been a resident at Rose Hill Residential Home until May 11, 2024, when care home staff statements submitted to Cockermouth Coroner's Court report that she suffered an unwitnessed fall in her bedroom at around 7.45am.

A report from the home stated that she was a 'medium falls risk', who could 'mobilise and walk independently' with the assistance of one carer and no aid.

She also had a 'number of co-morbidities' including dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, type-2 diabetes, and dry macular degeneration.

Care home staff said that they found Mrs Watson on the floor and called 999 as she had a cut on her head and was 'not very responsive'.

Paramedics attended and took her to the emergency department at the Cumberland Infirmary.

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A CT scan at the hospital showed a bleed on Mrs Watson’s brain along with a fractured cheekbone.

A statement submitted by a consultant in acute medicine in Carlisle said that her family were informed that there was 'little intervention that could be done' due to her dementia and bleeding on her brain, and the decision was made to manage Mrs Watson conservatively.

The statement said that a 'familiar environment would allow an accurate assessment to take place', and so the decision was made to discharge Mrs Watson back into the care of the Henry Lonsdale Trust, which owns Rosehill Care Home.

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She was transferred to Kingston Court Care Home on May 21, where she was treated palliatively until she passed away.

Assistant Coroner for Cumbria, Mr Robert Cohen, accepted the cause of death of an intracranial haemorrhage caused by a fall and Alzheimer's disease, and classed Mrs Watson's death as accidental.

A statement from her husband of 26 years, Eric, said that she owned a business in the Market Hall in Carlisle for over 20 years, selling china pottery and jewellery, and that she enjoyed visiting jumble sales and car boot sales.

Mr Cohen said: "What an extraordinary life Mrs Watson led, bringing up her children alone, running a business, and obviously part of a strong couple who, to use Mr Watson's words, lived life to full travelling all over the world."