A KINGTON wife who discovered her husband in a chair with a blood-stained towel clutched to his head shortly before his death has been told he probably suffered a dizzy spell and fell.

Hayden Geoffrey Lloyd, who suffered from heart disease and Alzheimer's, couldn't remember what had happened on March 15 this year when he suffered a gash to the back of his head, an inquest in Hereford heard.

The 79-year-old former farmer, known as Geoff, from The Nook, Elizabeth Road, died five days later at Hereford County Hospital.

His wife, Audrey Lloyd, was told he had probably become light headed due to his health problems.

"I heard Geoff shouting and he was sitting on a chair at the kitchen table with a towel to his head. He said he had been on the floor," Mrs Lloyd told deputy coroner Mark Bricknell, who recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Even though Mr Lloyd had not suffered a severe injury, pathologist Dr Frank McGinty said the fall had caused a haemorrhage outside his brain, aggravated by Alzheimer's.

"From my examination there's two possibilities. Alzheimer's can make you unsteady and if you have an abnormal heart rhythm it can cause dizzy spells. Either one of those could have caused him to fall," said Dr McGinty.

Recording his verdict, Mr Bricknell said Mr Lloyd's death wasn't natural and was as a consequence of his fall.