A 76 year old Moreton in Marsh man died after falling off his sofa and lying on the floor overnight, an inquest heard yesterday.

Both Albert Peachey and his wife suffered from dementia and when he fell to the floor she covered him with a blanket but did not raise the alarm.

The next day family members arrived at about 12pm and immediately contacted emergency services but Mr Peachey could not be saved, the Gloucester inquest was told.

He had suffered kidney damage in the fall and also had hypothermia, despite the blanket his wife had put over him ,and he died later that day.

The inquest heard it was on January 12 that Mr Peachey slipped from the sofa to the floor. He died on the evening of January 13 after the decision was made to place him onto palliative care.

The post mortem only found age related changes to Mr Peachey's organs and therefore the pathologist gave the cause of death as 'long-lie syndrome,' a condition associated with a fall where a patient remains on the ground for several hours.

The inquest heard there was family concern about the ambulance being delayed by sixteen minutes but assistant coroner Caroline Saunders said she did not feel that had made any "material difference."

She acknowledged the delay was due to the ambulance crew in the area being on a 'protected break.' She said she felt "lessons have been learnt" as a result of the incident.

Recording a conclusion of accidental death, she said Mr Peachey's combination of health problems resulted in reduced mobility and he fell on January 12.

"He responded to some stimuli and was breathing but on admittance to hospital he was described as very unwell" she said.

"The hospital were concerned about the time he spent on the floor and that he was suffering hypothermia and acute kidney problems. He was treated in hospital but his body was overwhelmed as a result of the length of time he had been immobile.

"There were no physical injuries to contribute towards cause of death and the change in all of the organs was due to advancing age so I agree with the post-mortem that the cause of death was long-lie syndrome."