Tragedy as woman, 90 thrown 20ft by faulty stairlift

Gwendoline Rhymer, 90, died three days later in hospital from injuries sustained in the horrific fall from the top to the bottom of the stairs.

An inquest in Sheffield yesterday heard she was spun around in her chair at the top and tipped out headfirst, after two bolts on the chairlift seat sheared off.

The hearing was told there had been a fatality in 2006 involving the same type of chairlift and another non-fatal incident in 2007.

Experts agreed the seat levelling bolts on Mrs Rhymer's chair had failed. One said it was due to "bending" fatigue, the other that the bolts had worked loose.

Mrs Rhymer's daughter Vanessa Faulkner told the inquest her mother was "frightened to death" of the chairlift and hated using it.

Mrs Rhymer's granddaughter and carer, Joanne Rhymer, said she had helped her grandmother wash and dress and was attempting to strap her into the stairlift when it went wrong.

She said: "I went to pull the belt to put it around her but, before I could do it, the chair swung round and tipped her over. My nan went straight over the bar, falling from top to bottom."

Miss Rhymer said she had reported a "juddering" in the stairlift to the manufacturers MediTek a week before and they said they would send someone out to look at it, but nobody came.

Just a year previously, the stairlift had developed an electrical fault which was repaired.

Miss Rhymer, who lived with her grandmother at their home in Birdwell, Barnsley, said she always used the seatbelt on the chairlift.

A police investigator said the gradient of the stairs was too steep for the type of stairlift.

The inquest heard Barnsley Council awarded a contract to MediTek to supply and fit stairlifts and the company sub-contracted the installation and maintenance to a company called Obam.

Barnsley Council now employs another firm to install and service stairlifts in its council homes.

Deputy coroner Donald Coutts-Wood recorded a narrative verdict.

Afterwards the pensioner's family said they were disappointed with the outcome.

Mrs Faulkner said: "I think it is disgusting. We are just not satisfied with the verdict.

"It never got top the bottom of what happened. There wasn't really any closure."