An inquest has been adjourned into the death of a hospice volunteer who slipped in a puddle fracturing her arm on holiday in the Dominican Republic.

Surgeons were coming to the end of operating on 60-year-old Cath Smith’s arm when she went into cardiac arrest on May 22 this year and died, the Bradford inquest heard yesterday.

But the hearing was adjourned to call pathologist Faizul Ali after Mrs Smith’s family wanted to hear more about the medical findings.

The inquest heard a first examination in the Dominican Republic had found she had died from natural causes.

However, a report by Dr Ali, who carried out a second autopsy in the UK, said he had not been able to identify the arteries to examine them.

A friend who was on holiday with Mrs Smith, of Royds Moor Road, Tong, believed the water on the floor had come from a leaky air-conditioner unit.

At the time of her death her daughter Nicky Lancaster paid tribute to her mum who had twice beaten breast cancer and had said: “She was everybody’s friend.”