Tribute to ‘much-appreciated’ Mayo nurse who died after fall outside her home

A coroner has praised a retired diabetic nurse who died in the emergency unit of Mayo University Hospital days after sustaining a major head injury when she fell on tarmacadam outside her home as ‘much appreciated’ by her patients and the region’s doctors.

Dr. Eleanor Fitzgerald, Coroner for the District of Mayo, made her comments after returning a verdict of accidental death at an inquest into the death of Marie Todd-Hall, Derrycoosh, Castlebar.

Mrs. Hall sustained the fatal injury in the fall on October 29 last after returning from a night out in Castlebar with her husband, Noel.

Details of the circumstances of the mother of three’s death was outlined at the inquest which was re-opened and concluded by Coroner Fitzgerald at Ballina Courthouse.

Mr. Hall said he and his wife returned by taxi to their home after a night socialising in Castlebar and the taxi brought them to the rear of their house as they would usually access the building via the back steps.

He explained he left his wife in the taxi while he unlocked the door and turned the lights on but when he returned and walked down the steps to get her he could not see her and called out her name.

“I then saw Marie lying face down in blood on the tarmac,” Mr. Hall recalled in a statement to gardaí which was read to the inquest by garda courts presenter Sergeant Noel Crinnegan.

“I knelt down beside her to turn her over. I then took out my phone and rang 999.”

Mrs. Hall suffered brain herniation due to a traumatic brain injury sustained in the fall.

The circumstances of her death were investigated by Garda Maura Hopkins.

She told the inquest the fatal incident occurred as the Halls returned from a night out.

Expressing sympathy to the deceased’s husband, family and other relatives on their tragic loss, Dr. Fitzgerald said the deceased was a retired diabetic nurse specialist who was “very well known and appreciated by her patients and GPs for the services she offered them”.

Sergeant Crinnegan, on behalf of An Garda Síochána, joined Coroner Fitzgerald in expressing condolences.

* Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme.