Pensioner who 'wanted to reach 100' died after she was scalded by cup of tea

A 99-year-old woman who “wanted to reach 100” died after she was scalded by a cup of tea.

- By DAVID POWELL Daily Post Reporter

Margaret Eluned Roberts suffered burns after the hot black tea spilled on to her at a nursing home on Anglesey.

An inquest into her death yesterday heard the burn contributed to Mrs Roberts catching a chest infection. But a senior coroner concluded that the death - about five weeks after the burn - was accidental.

Kate Robertson, senior coroner for north west Wales, found she died from pneumonia and cellulitis secondary to a burn, with old age, asthma and ischaemic heart disease as contributory factors.

Sarah Thomas, a healthcare assistant at Glan Rhos nursing home in Brynsiencyn, told the hearing Mrs Roberts asked for the cup of black tea.

So she gave it to her in a plastic, two-handled beaker on September 22 last year.

She said she knew Mrs Roberts was registered blind but she was “very independent” and “wanted to drink the cup of tea herself”.

Ms Thomas watched Mrs Roberts, sitting in a chair, sip it through a straw in the spout then moved away.