A 93-year-old died nearly a month after undergoing surgery following a fall.

At an inquest in Leigh, coroner Mr Aidan Cotter heard how Hilda Wilkinson contracted pneumonia and a chest infection days after being released from hospital where surgeons had operated on a broken thigh bone.

She had suffered a fall at the Brideoake Residential Home in Widdows Street, Leigh on March 24, the inquest was told.

She died on April 25 at the Bedford House Nursing Home in Battersby Street, Leigh, after spending four weeks in the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Mr Cotter said: "I am satisfied this accident did contribute to Mrs Wilkinson's death.

"She was elderly, without huge reserves to fight the trauma she went through. I am satisfied that everything which could have been done for Mrs Wilkinson was done."

Mrs Wilkinson's son, 58-year-old Keith Wilkinson, of Derwent Street, Leigh, said his mother needed assistance to get around.

He said staff had called him on March 24 to inform him of the fall but added: "She was confused and could not tell me much about it."

Doris Ashley, a staff member at the home, said she heard shouts before rushing to discover Mrs Wilkinson lying near the ground floor foyer on March 24.

"She had come downstairs in the lift and had left her walking frame in her room," she said.

Paramedics were called and Mrs Wilkinson was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital where surgeons operated on her fractured femur two days later.

But the inquest heard she never completely recovered after returning to Bedford House rather than the Brideoake Residential Home where she had lived for four years.

Dr Rachael Hilton said: "The type of fracture put a major strain on the body as a whole."

The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.