This 93-year-old woman has died after being discharged from hospital when she was being taken into her home on a stretcher and she fell off and hit her head on a desk.

Rosalia Martins Machado’s relatives were in good spirits when she was discharged from the emergency care unit in the Brazilian city of Paranagua on 23rd February.

She had been taken to hospital with a urinary tract infection but was given the all-clear and allowed to return home, to her daughter Ana Lucia Machado’s delight.

However, due to her limited mobility, she had to be driven to her home in an ambulance, and the driver had to take her into the house on a stretcher.

When the unnamed driver was moving the elderly woman from the living room to her bedroom, she fell off the stretcher and banged her head on a desk.

Pointing to the desk, Ana told reporters: “She hit her head here and then fell to the floor. He then lifted her, placed her on the stretcher again, and we then went to the bedroom.”

Ana said that after the fall, her mum struggled to speak and experienced memory loss, so the family took her back to hospital.

She was admitted in a serious condition and sadly passed away on 27th February.

Her cause of death was given as a fall from a height, which resulted in head trauma and intracranial haemorrhage.

The Civil Police (Brazil’s investigative police force) of the state of Parana is investigating the incident.

The family believes there should have been other staff present at the time and that the ambulance driver should have offered to take her back to hospital after the fall.

The ambulance driver has been placed on leave until the investigation is finished.