Barbara Bolton, an octogenarian UK lady, died after fixating on surging energy bills in the country and turning off her heating in winter to save energy.
According to a report by Metro UK, Bolton’s family tried to convince her to stop worrying and gave her mobile heaters to keep her warm during winter.
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They now say that Bolton turned it off when she was alone to save energy costs and died in the process.
Who was Barbara Bolton?
Barbara Bolton was an 87-year-old ‘proud’ pensioner from Bury, Greater Manchester. According to a recently heard inquest, when on December 11, 2022, there was no answer on her phone, her grandson Nathan used a spare key to enter the house.
Upon entering, he found Bolton in the kitchen freezing and unable to speak. Nathan then raced her to a hospital, where the doctors recorded her temperature at 28.9 C. She passed away four weeks later on January 5, after developing hypothermia.
However, recurring pneumonia was listed as her primary cause of death, per the report done by Metro UK.
“Obviously her death was linked to hypothermia,” senior Corone Joanne Kearsley was quoted saying in the report.
“One reason why she had developed hypothermia was because she had decided, herself, that she doesn’t want to put her heating on. ‘She has clearly become fixated on the worry of putting her heating on, no matter what anyone was saying to her,” the coroner added.
In a statement, her son Mark Bolton said: “She wouldn’t put the heating on in the house. But she had been told by her family, particularly in respect of the time, not to worry about that. You brought your mum mobile heaters for her house.”
“If you called to see her, they would be turned on. But you don’t know if they were turned on when you left.”