A HAMPSHIRE man died just hours after hitting his head when he fell off his mobility scooter because medication he was taking prevented a bleed on his brain from clotting, an inquest heard.

Raymond O’Connor fell in a hospital car park, hitting his head on a parked car, as he went to bring the car to the hospital’s entrance to pick up his wife who had just finished an appointment.

The 57-year-old dad, from Lymington, immediately got up and continued with his day, but unbeknown to him he had suffered a bleed on his brain which was to kill him just hours later.

Southampton Coroner’s Court heard that Mr O’Connor had not hit his head particularly hard and was quickly up and driving his wife, Anne, to their home in Danecrest Road, before going back out to pick up a take-away for their evening meal.

But during the evening he started to feel unwell, vomited and by the time he was in the emergency department of Southampton General Hospital it was clear there was a “poor prognosis”.

The inquest heard that a CT scan revealed a large bleed on the brain which had pushed his brain over to the right-hand side and after consultation with his doctors, it was agreed that even emergency surgery would give him only a minimal chance of a reasonable quality of life.

The court was told that Mr O’Connor had been on blood thinning medication for a heart condition, which was deemed to be the reason why a relatively minor incident led to such tragic consequences.

Coroner Keith Wiseman said: “This was a very unexpected and sad event.

“The event that occurred on this particular day at the hospital, while he was helping his wife was, I am afraid, sufficient, not because of the injury itself but because of the warfarin which effectively prevented appropriate clotting while time elapsed before he fell unwell.”

The coroner recorded a determination of accidental death.