Great grandmother, 90, dies after being catapulted from faulty stairlift

Gwendoline Rhymer died after she fell down a flight of stairs while using a faulty stairlift

A great-grandmother died after being catapulted 20ft down stairs in her home by a faulty stairlift, an inquest heard.



Gwendoline Rhymer, 60, passed away in hospital three days later from injuries sustained in the horrific fall.

Mrs Rhymer was spun round in her chair and tipped out headfirst after restraining bolts on the seat sheared off.

Her daughter Vanessa Faulkner told the hearing her mother was 'frightened to death' of the chairlift .

Mrs Faulkner said the widow was so petrified she used to cling onto a handrail as the chair was in motion and say: 'I will not fall will I?



A hearing in Sheffield was told the family had reported a 'whining' noise and 'juddering' with the mechanism a week earlier but the company maintaining the stairlift had not sent out an engineer.

Mrs Rhymer's grand-daughter and carer Joanne Rhymer said she had helped her wash and dress in the bathroom and was attempting to strap her into the stairlift with a seatbelt 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 complained to manufacturers MediTek a week before.

'They said they would send somebody out but nobody came,' she said.

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

A stairlift pictured on the MediTek UK website

The carer who lived with the 90-year-old at their home in Birdwell, Barnsley said she always put the seatbelt around her mother's waist.



She said: 'She was so frightened she used to hold a bar at the side. She was scared to come down.'

Mrs Faulkner said her mother who had osteoarthritis in both knees and a variety of ailments, was incapable of putting the seat belt on herself.

She rang the police after the accident and an officer said the stairs gradient was too steep for the type of stairlift and there was more than five years wear and tear on the machine which was installed as new in July, 2006.

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.

Engineer Anthony Hall confirmed two of the retaining screws on the seat had sheared off when the machine was examined. He also believed the seat belt had not been regularly used.

Obam director Christopher Butroid said after the tragedy all users of stairlifts on their books were contacted and the seat belts were removed and new ones put on which were tightened up.

Two independent experts told the hearing the seat belt failed but they disagreed as to whether it was the design or the fitting.

Mrs Rhymer's stairlift had been due to be serviced the month she died.

Pathologist Dr Steven Beck said she suffered extensive bruising to her forehead and broken ribs in the fall.

He concluded she died from a heart attack on July 15 last year due to a blunt trauma injury to the chest sustained in the fall three days earlier.

The hearing continues.