Within hours of his wife being taken into hospital, a Milford Haven man followed her after falling down the stairs and sustaining a fatal injury.

Seventy-four-year-old Albert Glyn Henry Hicks, of 114 Observatory Avenue, Hakin, suffered extensive fractures of the skull in the fall and died four days later, on February 28th, at Withybush Hospital, Pembrokeshire coroner Michael Howells, was told at a Milford Haven inquest on Thursday.

Mr Hicks was found to have an unusually thin skull and suffered severe brain injuries, which the coroner said were found to be insurvivable and inoperable.

Next door neighbour Dilys Davies said she had stayed with Mr Hicks after calling the ambulance to take his wife to hospital.

He had gone upstairs to fetch his own medication and when he came down she heard a loud crash and found him lying on his back at the foot of the stairs with his feet on the third step. He was unconscious.

Mrs Davies, who was praised by the coroner for her good neighbourly actions, called an ambulance and Mr Hicks was taken to hospital.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded.