A mum died in an ambulance crash after breaking her back whilst on holiday in Cuba.
Julia McLean was getting out of the shower and about to head out for a meal when she slipped and broke her lower back.
She had flown out to Havana on December 10 last year to see her Trinidadian friend Richard Halbie, Lancs Live reports.
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The 67-year-old spent three weeks at the Faustino Perez Hospital in Matanzas province before her holiday insurance company arranged for her to fly home.
But in a tragic turn of events, the grandmother suffered fatal injuries when the ambulance taking her to the airport crashed and overturned.
An inquest at Preston Coroner's Court heard that she had been looking forward to flying home to Lancashire where a bed at the Royal Blackburn Hospital had been reserved for her.
Area Coroner Chris Long said: "The investigation report from the Cuban authorities reveals the crash happened in the Matanzas province on a 104km stretch of national highway.
"The driver of the ambulance lost control and came off the highway and crashed into a group of trees before turning upside down.
"The driver, who had 15 years' experience, had had rest before the accident, he had slept in the duty officer's base and toxicology was negative for drugs or alcohol.
"The road is a straight, plain road in a good state and the vehicle's GPS shows the ambulance was travelling at 83kph not in violation of the 100kph limit. The ambulance was also in a good condition."
Cuban police later concluded the crash was caused by a momentary lack of attention.
Julia's son Nathan McLean, a former police officer with Rochdale police, said that his mother had lost the use of one of her legs after breaking her lower back when stepping out of the shower on December 12.
He said immediately after the collision on February 6 he was told the accident was "minor" and that there had been no injuries.
"On February 7 I woke to a text from Richard who said she had undergone emergency life-saving surgery," Mr McLean, 40, said in his statement.
"I was in shock and felt numb. This was supposed to be a minor accident with no injuries yet they had to operate to save my mum's life. It's clear it was not a minor accident."
After surgery Mrs McLean, who lived in Bacup, Lancs, initially began to improve, but then on December 10 her son received a devastating message.
"Richard text me to say she has gone," Mr McLean said.
"They had been working on mum but hadn't been able to save her."
The medical cause of Mrs McLean's death was given by Cuban authorities as traumatic shock, rib fractures and lung contusions.
Mr McLean believes his mum's condition will have been contributed to by the blood-thinning warfarin she was taking for a pre-existing condition.
Concluding that Mrs McLean's death was the result of a road traffic collision the coroner said: "Julia Catherine McLean died on February 10, 2021, at Faustino Perez Hospital.
"Julia was visiting Cuba and fell, resulting in her being admitted to hospital for treatment.
"She was being transferred but the ambulance driver lost control of the vehicle which overturned resulting in Julia receiving significant injuries from which she did not recover."
After the inquest Mrs McLean's son Nathan revealed her death happened just months after his father passed away following a short battle with cancer.
Since the ambulance crash in Cuba, Mr McLean has discovered that the driver faces 10 years in prison for the momentary loss of concentration which caused the collision.
"My mum wouldn't want him to go to prison for 10 years," he said
"She would want the authorities to be lenient towards him. In my mind my gut feeling is that that's what my mum would want.
"He's only human and we can all end up having a momentary lapse of concentration. He has enough to live with knowing that my mum has died."
Mr McLean has since been in contact with Darwen and Rossendale MP Jake Berry as well as the British embassy in Cuba and the Cuban embassy in the UK in a bid to persuade the Caribbean authorities to be lenient towards the ambulance driver.
