AN ELDERLY woman was found on the kitchen floor of her house covered in blood after she fell down the stairs. 

The fire service was called to Chapeltown Road in Bromley Cross, at around 12.15pm on Friday. 

A deliveryman had arrived at the premises trying to deliver a parcel for the 81-year-old woman. 

When he received no answer at the house he gave the parcel to the woman’s neighbour, Sally Knowles, so that she could give it to her. 
Miss Knowles saw that her neighbour’s car was there and thought that she must be at home.

She went around the back of the house and saw the elderly woman on the kitchen floor covered in blood.

Miss Knowles said: “It was quite traumatic. I stuck my head through the cat flap and shouted her name. She woke up as soon as I shouted her. I told her she had a serious accident and that I was ringing an ambulance.”

The woman was conscious but Miss Knowles did not have a key or an emergency number.

She called firefighters, who forced their way into the house through the rear door allowing paramedics to treat her.

When she was assessed by paramedics the woman was found to have deep lacerations to her legs and suspected broken bones.

Paramedics did not know if she had suffered further serious injuries and she was taken to hospital to be assessed. 

Neil Mercer, watch manager at Bolton North fire station, said that looking at the marks on the floor and the wall it appeared that the woman had fallen down the stairs and crawled into the kitchen, and potentially could have been there overnight. 

He said: “There were two bottles of milk at the front door which would probably have been delivered in the morning. It is a real shame. 

“She will require a new back door because we had to force this one.”

Miss Knowles, aged 31, added: “Her hair was matted with blood, I had never seen anything like it in my life. She was quite dazed and confused. It was all really quite sad.

“I was just in the right place at the right time. Anybody would have done the same thing. The fire brigade were amazing. They got here in no time at all.”

Miss Knowles said that her neighbour was very independent and ‘kept herself to herself’.

She urged people to make sure that they have emergency contact telephone numbers for elderly neighbours as well as spare keys for if they need help.