A 77-YEAR-OLD woman, who weighed less than four stones, was given an adult dosage of sedative prior to an exploratory operation the night before she died.

But an inquest heard the dosage had not contributed to the death of Winnifred Gettings although staff at Blackburn Royal Infirmary had admitted to her daughter that Mrs Gettings had been over sedated.

Mrs Gettings, of Richmond Hill Street, Accrington, had been diagnosed as suffering from angina in November of last year.

She was taken to hospital with pains in her left side at the end of the month and early in December after complaining of severe pain.

Daughter Linda Kennedy said her mother was only four feet six inches tall and had always been very slight and at the time of her admission she weighed less than four stones.

Mrs Gettings was diagnosed as having a collapsed lung. She was moved to Queen's Park and on December 20 was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary for a gastrochtomy.

When Mrs Kennedy went to visit her mother had not regained consciousness. "The staff told me at that stage that she had been over sedated," said Mrs Kennedy. "She had been given an adult dosage rather than a dose in keeping with her size."

The medical cause of death was given as bronchopneumonia, chronic obstructive airways disease and heart disease. Pathologist, Dr Richard Prescott said the level of sedative in Mrs Gettings' system had been below the therapeutic range and was not a contributory factor in her death.

Deputy coroner Carolyn Singleton recorded a natural causes verdict.