A woman died just days after collapsing at her Marlow home, an inquest heard today.

Paula Taplin, 65, was found unconscious by her son Oliver on the morning December 14 last year, slouched in her chair at home in Seymour Court Road with blood coming out of her nose.

Beaconsfield Coroner’s Court heard how Oliver returned home at 10.30pm on the 13th to find his mum in a chair in the living room, with the bathroom door “off the hinges”.

He asked her whether she had been in the bathroom, to which she replied she had not.

Mr Taplin told the inquest he asked her if there had been a problem with the door and she said she had not been in the bathroom.

He said: “Her words were very slurred.”

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He also told the court he assumed she was intoxicated because of the way she was speaking and that a bottle of Bacardi was seen by her chair.

The inquest heard Ms Taplin had a history of excessive drinking as well as a host of health problems including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), carpal tunnel and “major” depression, as well as anxiety.

After Mr Taplin found his mum on December 14, he called 999 and she was rushed to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where she had several seizures.

A CT scan revealed she had suffered bleeding on her brain in several places and a decision was made to take her to intensive care for end-of-life care.

She was then transferred to the Florence Nightingale Hospice, on the hospital site, on December 14 for ongoing palliative care.

Ms Taplin sadly died on December 16.

Doctors found a number of injuries on Ms Taplin’s body and recommended her medical cause of death as caused by a fall caused by alcohol excess – but senior coroner for Buckinghamshire Crispin Butler said he did not think this was appropriate as it was not clear whether alcohol was the cause of her injuries.

Instead, he took the recommendation for her medical cause of death to be a subdural haemorrhage and intracranial haemorrhage, saying: “I wouldn’t include alcohol excess because we don’t know what the chain of events were.”

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He recorded Ms Taplin’s death as accidental, saying: “She passed away on the morning of December 16 as a result of bleeding to the brain.

“She never regained consciousness from the time that [her son] found her.

“We have clear evidence of traumatic injuries.

“On the balance of probabilities, her death was accidental.”

Speaking to Ms Taplin’s family at the inquest, Mr Butler added: “You have my condolences. It is a very difficult situation to have to deal with and such uncertainty as to what has happened to lead to this.”