A retired top Bradford surgeon died after being discharged from hospital suffering a broken neck.

Coroner Roger Whittaker rec-orded a verdict of accidental death after hearing that Norman Addison, of Moorhead Lane, Shipley, was sent home in an ambulance by hospital staff who were unaware his neck was broken.

Mr Addison, 77, former senior consultant general surgeon at Bradford Royal Infirmary, fell down the stairs at his home on July 8 last year.

Carer Margaret McPherson, of Glenroyd Drive, Low Moor, told Bradford Coroner's Court she looked after Mr Addison and his wife, who had suffered a stroke, for 18 months and was at his home in Shipley when he died.

She said Mr Addison, who suffered arthritis and dementia, and drank heavily, regularly fell over.

On July 8 she was making his first drink of the day at 11am when she heard "an almighty thud" and found him collapsed at the foot of the stairs.

She called an ambulance but had no idea his neck was broken.

Clinical assistant at BRI's Accident and Emergency Abdu Omar Elballal said he had no reason to suspect Mr Addison had injured his neck.

He said: "He was mobile, moving his head and nodding."

A skull X-ray taken at BRI was normal, and Mr Elballal discharged Mr Addison after checking he had 24-hour care at home.

Peter Bradley, consultant at A&E, had worked at BRI with Mr Addison in the 1980s. He said: "He was an excellent surgeon, but he was of the old school who thought it was demeaning to admit to pain." Had Mr Addison admitted feeling even mild pain in his neck, his spine would have been X-rayed, he said.

Mr Addison collapsed after suffering breathing difficulties as he was dropped off at home.

He was taken back to BRI but was dead on arrival there.

A post-mortem examination by Dr Philip Batman, consultant pathologist at BRI, showed that Mr Addison suffered two fractured vertebrae with blood clots, and a head injury.

Mr Whittaker said he was satisfied these injuries caused his death and that he would have died even if he had been kept in hospital. "I reach the conclusion that this was a sad but tragic accident," he said.