Lourdes pilgrim sues after falling out of wheelchair

A pilgrim who broke her shoulder falling from a wheelchair on a visit to Lourdes is suing the church charity which arranged the trip. Bernadette Barton suffered three fractures when she fell out of the ‘rickety’ chair. The fall came on the last night of her week-long pilgrimage to the French shrine famous for ‘healing’ miracles.

She told Manchester Civil Court she was trying to get out of the wheelchair because her carers had failed to help her. Miss Barton, 58, from Burnage, said she was in ‘terrific pain’ after the fall. She is virtually blind and struggles to walk because of spinal problems. She also suffers from a condition which means she can sleep for only three hours at a time.



The £500 trip to Lourdes was paid for by her church, Catherine of Siena in Didsbury. It was organised by Salford Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees, a registered charity, which arranged carers for the pilgrims on the trip. Miss Barton claims a carer Joyce Mellor pushed her back to her room in a wheelchair, but she was forced to try to get out on her own after being left alone for several minutes.

She fell and injured herself after tripping on a footplate. Miss Barton, who is being represented by Manchester law firm Pannone, is suing the church trustees for negligence over the fall, in August 2007. She claims they failed to provide help for her to get out of the wheelchair, to put the brakes on properly and to remove the footplates, causing her to try to get out of the wheelchair on her own. The trustees deny her claim.