A PENSIONER lay for a night with a broken thigh after refusing to allow an ambulance crew to take him to hospital, an inquest heard.

Algernon Ireson, 79, died at Swindon's Princess Margaret Hospital on March 8 after suffering pneumonia.

Four days earlier, the frail widower had fallen at his daughter's house in Swindon Road, Stratton St Margaret, where he had gone to live after his wife's death.

Mr Ireson's daughter, Janet Gee, claimed the two ambulance crew members had failed to tell her how potentially serious the situation was, but both denied this.

Wiltshire and Swindon assistant deputy coroner Nigel Brookes recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mrs Gee told the inquest: "He could get about the house on his own, but he had to be watched in the later part of his life because he was a bit unsteady on his feet, and he smoked and could be a bit careless with his cigarettes."

On the afternoon of the fall Mrs Gee who usually cared for her father during the day was away, picking up her son from school.

Another son, Craig, was sleeping, having cared for the old man all night, but was awakened by a noise and found Mr Ireson at the bottom of the stairs, apparently having fallen as he went in search of cigarettes.

Mrs Gee was summoned and an ambulance was called.

The crew, ambulance technician Gareth Saunders and trainee Hannah Meadows, told the hearing they advised Mr Ireson he needed to go to hospital but he refused. They then put him to bed.

Mrs Gee said she would have insisted he went to hospital had she been told how potentially serious the situation was, but claimed this was not made clear to her.

Both ambulance crew members, however, insisted they suspected a possible broken thigh.

This was diagnosed by a GP the following day, and Mr Ireson was taken to hospital, where he later died.

During her evidence, Mrs Gee claimed her father had been forced to leave PMH at the end of a stay for a lung complaint in January because they needed the bed.

She said: "At noon I was being told he needed his oxygen mask fully on and his catheter in because he couldn't go to the toilet and at 1pm I was being told I could take him home."

Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust spokesman Chris Birdsall said he could not comment on individual cases, but insisted that hospital staff would never discharge a patient before they were ready.