A 82-YEAR-OLD Oldbury care resident who fell and broke her hip died after contracting Covid-19.

Patricia Hoey, who lived at Grafton Lodge Care Home, was admitted to Sandwell Hospital after falling and breaking her hip at the home in Grafton Road.

The retired dress maker, who suffered from Alzheimers Disease, was admitted to hospital on April 21 and had an operation to repair her left hip on April 22.

By April 24 she was ready to be discharged, with physio.

Coroner Joanne Lees, area coroner for the Black Country, told an inquest at the Black Country Coroner's Court in Oldbury on Tuesday (May 18): "Sadly she was found to have Covid-19 and was discharged to Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre in Oldbury Road, Smethwick, on the morning of May 13 and sadly passed away the same day."

Mrs Lees said she accepted the cause of death provided by Mrs Hoey's GP which was pneumonia and Covid-19, with dementia, myocardial infarction and a fractured left hip as contributory factors.

She said: "A fall led to admission into hospital and a period of immobility following surgery for a fractured left hip meant Mrs Hoey was more susceptible to developing a respiratory infection, which she contracted in hospital and led to her death."

Mrs Lees recorded a short narrative verdict that a fall contributed to a natural death.

Mrs Hoey, who was born in Birmingham was a widow. Her late husband Patrick Hoey was a retired furnace man.