An inquest has heard that an 87-year-old woman who got “fixated” on rising energy costs passed away after developing hypothermia when she turned off her heating during the winter.
The family of Barbara Bolton made an effort to persuade her to set aside concerns about rising prices and provided her with portable heaters so that she could stay warm.
Nevertheless, family members were concerned that the ‘proud’ retiree may have switched them off when she was alone herself.
On December 11, 2022, her grandson Nathan used a key to get into her house after she didn’t answer the phone.
He found his elderly relative unable to speak while sitting in the freezing kitchen of her terraced home in Bury, Greater Manchester.
She was raced to hospital, where doctors reported that she had a temperature of just 28.9C and she passed away four weeks later on January 5.
Tests revealed that Ms Bolton, who worried that she was becoming ‘confused’ in the lead-up to her death, was suffering with vascular dementia alongside hypothermia.
But her primary cause of death has been listed as recurrent pneumonia.
Recording a verdict of misadventure, senior Coroner Ms Joanne Kearsley said: ‘Obviously her death was linked to hypothermia.
“One reason why she had developed hypothermia was because she had decided, herself, that she doesn’t want to put her heating on.
‘She has clearly become fixated on the worry of putting her heating on, no matter what anyone was saying to her.’
Barbara’s family agreed during the hearing at Rochdale Coroners Court that she could often be ‘proud’ and preferred to make her own decisions about her welfare.
A statement from her son Mark Bolton, read out by Ms Kearsley, said: ‘She wouldn’t put the heating on in the house.
‘But she had been told by her family, particularly in respect of the time, not to worry about that. You brought your mum mobile heaters for her house.
‘If you called to see her, they would be turned on. But you don’t know if they were turned on when you left.’
A statement from Dr Ansari, a consultant physician who treated Ms Bolton after she was brought to Fairfield Hospital in Bury, added that she had ‘deliberately not turned her heating on for fear of high energy bills’.
‘This admission was probably an avoidable admission’, he said.
He went on: ‘But because she was very obstinate and was also a self-sufficient proud woman, she would not really accept help, even from her family.’
Dr Ansari explained that staff tried to treat her but those suffering from health issues like Ms Bolton’s had an ‘extremely poor’ prognosis.
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Ms Kearsley said Ms Bolton’s family cared deeply for her, and though it had been her decision to turn her heating off, she hadn’t intended to end her own life.
She said: ‘Barbara was a very close part of your family and was cared for very well by all of you. But she was a very proud lady, and very stubborn, I suspect.
‘For some reason, it became entrenched in her view that she couldn’t put her heating on at that time for whatever reason. Only your mum will know if she was worrying about it.
‘No matter what anyone was telling her, she wasn’t going to do anything any differently.’