A WOMAN in a care home died after having an altercation with another pensioner because he did not shut a toilet door.
Former teacher Joy Holden, 85, put her hands up to the man at the Manorfields Care Home, Derby, but lost her balance and fell.
An inquest heard that Mrs Holden suffered from heart disease and a hormone condition, but the fall, in which she suffered internal bleeding, was significant in contributing to her death.
Both Mrs Holden and the resident involved in the altercation had Alzheimer's.
Assistant coroner Louise Pinder ruled that Mrs Holden's death was an accident.
She died at the Royal Derby Hospital on April 26 last year, two days after the fall.
Julie Penn, manager at the home on Farley Road, told the hearing: "Joyce shouted at another resident to shut the door.
"The gentleman told her to mind her own business.
"He then he came out of the toilet and he was flapping his hands. Joyce put her hand up to him and lost balance.
"They were two metres away, and there was no physical contact. Joyce fell outside the entrance.
"She was known to voice her opinion but was easy to calm.
"She was irritated the man had not shut the door and they had no previous difficulties. Everybody loved her."
Mrs Holden taught at St James' School and Bradley School, both in Derby.
She was also a supply teacher and did a lot of travelling.
Mrs Holden had to live with a goitre, an abnormal enlargement of the thyroid gland on her neck.
Her daughter, Lynnee Lumley, told the coroner: "The goitre was enormous. She had it in her 40s and had managed it. When she was compos-mentis and OK she said the care home was fantastic.
"In the afternoons she could get very anxious and make cups of coffee and sit in the office looking at apostrophes which were in the wrong place."
Mrs Penn said: "I have looked at the risk assessment and I'm quite happy."
She said the incident was "one of those things".
"It could have happened at any time.
"She was quite independent and did her own thing and could walk independently," added Mrs Penn.
