3:51PM GMT 09 Jan 2013

Great-grandmother May Lavinia Ward was “full of life” until she fell a metre and a half from a bucket sling as she was moved from a chair to a bed, fracturing her skull, and hip and breaking her knee.

Carers Shasha Wei, from China, and Rumyana Ivanova, from Bulgaria, put the bloodied dementia patient back to bed for forty minutes after she had jerked forward onto the floor when one of them let her go.

Her agitation may have been caused because she couldn’t understand them, Hertfordshire Coroners Court heard today.

They had even changed her clothes but eventually a nurse at Meppershall Care Home, Bedfordshire, was informed and paramedics rushed to the scene to find Mrs Ward, who had a broken leg and swollen eye, vomiting dark blood.

The medics told the inquest they struggled to treat the centenarian because she couldn’t understand the foreign nurses’ explanation of what had happened.

Ms Ivanova and Ms Wei – both English speakers – were interviewed by police but no further action was taken and they have since gone back to their home countries.

Mrs Ward, the grandmother of former Premier League footballers Elliot Ward, 27, and Darren Ward, 34, was rushed to hospital but died the next day on August 28, 2010.

The women, who had been working in Britain since autumn 2009, told DC Philip Freebrey in interview that Mrs Ward had “become agitated”.

Investigations showed that the sling was working but was not being used properly and experts claimed they had not been given the proper training.

Ruth Boulton, from Health and Safety Executive, said that when handling a dementia patient co-operation is essential before using any equipment.

She told the jury: “The language barrier, though they could speak English, could have made a difference to the care.

“I am a nurse also and I think there are cultural differences in how people ‘get a job done’ and this could have been a communication breakdown.”

Mrs Ward, who had been moved into the home in 2004, was in a confused state when she was taken to hospital where tests confirmed she had suffered multiple skull fractures.

Post-mortem results later showed she was also suffering from significant heart disease.

Former care home manager Judith Ellen, who was sacked in December 2009 following the incident, told the jury Mrs Ward might have been moved too quickly.

She said: “The (carers) were very upset about what happened and had always been good carers.

“There had been questions raised about how well May could understand people looking after her. She liked her own personal space and didn’t like to be intruded on.

“It was terrible and I have tried to put it behind me.”

The former publican’s son John Ward, 62, said: “May was 100 years young just months before her death.

“She celebrated with her family and had a telegram from the Queen. She was a wonderful person”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9790679