Sudden death of much-loved teaching assistant who thought she just had a cold
Jane Allison was out shopping in Hull the day before she passed away in March
A well respected Beverley teaching assistant tragically died unexpectedly after developing what she thought was a cold.
Jane Allison, 67, was out shopping in Hull the day before she passed away on March 4, 2020 and the only health problem she had was a persistent cough that came weeks before her death.
Mrs Allison was a teaching assistant for 20 years at Beverley Minster Primary School before retiring in 2017.
The inquest into her death at Hull Coroner's Court heard that Mrs Allison was a heavy smoker who had high cholesterol and had previously suffered with depression following surgery for ovarian cancer.
The inquest heard from Mrs Allison’s son, who said that she was “great at being a mum” and that she had a love of children and ran a toddler play group at home before going on to work as a teaching assistant in her later years.
She had a good childhood and was “studious and bright”.
Mrs Allison went on to work for a gift shop before working for Humberside Council for a number of years.
She met her husband when she was 20 and they married in 1977 and had two children.
Her son said Mrs Allison excelled at being a mother and he and his sister had a very happy childhood.
Her marriage broke down in 2004 and she started a new relationship with her partner in 2010 and they eventually moved in together.
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As well as enjoying her role working with children, Ms Allison was an avid knitter, enjoyed walking, shopping and looking after her dog and had many friends.
She had a persistent cough that would come and go in the weeks before death, but she just assumed it to be a virus and the day before her death, on March 3, Mrs Allison went shopping in Hull for the day.
The partner of Mrs Allison gave evidence that the pair went to bed in their home in Browns Way at 10pm as usual and that she said she thought she had a cold.
At 3am he woke to Mrs Allison talking, but this was usual in her sleep. He woke her and she then fell asleep again.
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When he woke at 9.15am, he could hear the dog barking and thought it was “odd” that Jane was not up, then shook her and found that she had no pulse and called ambulance, with a paramedic confirming her death.
Dr Laslo Karsai conducted a postmortem and gave the cause of Mrs Allison’s death as acute myocardial ischemia, ischemic heart disease and severe coronary artery atheroma.
Assistant coroner Lorraine Harris gave a conclusion of natural causes and said Mrs Allison’s death was not related to coronavirus, despite her symptoms and death at the time of the pandemic.
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“It is worthy of note that Jane died at the time of the Covid pandemic, and that she had a cough that would come and go,” said Ms Harris.
“I do not however have in front of me any evidence to suggest that she was Covid positive, which is regarded as a natural death in any event.
“But with her underlying conditions, she could have been susceptible to that awful condition.
“But I must of course only rely on evidence before me for her cause of death, which is from an eminent pathologist.”
Inquests are continuing to take place without members of the public, including the media, present.
As the media usually attend inquests, Hull Live has been provided with recordings and transcripts of such hearings to continue reporting on them as usual.
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