A 91-YEAR-old woman in the advanced stages of terminal cancer died after choking on a beef sandwich in hospital.

Edith Broom, a resident at Seymour House in Chippenham, had been admitted to Chippenham hospital almost a month earlier with an infection.

She had complained of breathing and swallowing difficulties in the days before her death on March 1 and had also choked on a sprout at lunchtime.

Her daughter, Mrs Sheila Avery, told a Trowbridge inquest on Wednesday that she had asked a doctor to see her mother five days before she died but that had not happened until February 28.

She also questioned her mother being given a beef sandwich for her tea.

"It didn't seem the right thing to give her because she had difficulty swallowing," said Mrs Avery, of London Road, Chippenham.

However, staff nurse Linda Bird, who was one of four nurses on duty the evening Mrs Broom died, said the patient had chosen the meal carrot soup followed by the sandwich, which was cut into small squares and there had been no indication she could not cope with normal food.

Mrs Bird did add that the incident with the sprout at lunchtime should have been recorded in Mrs Broom's notes.

When tea had been served to patients in the day room, Mrs Bird heard coughing and went in to see Mrs Broom in her wheelchair, obviously in difficulty.

"She had tissues in her hand; she was bending forward and coughing," she said.

Staff attempted to stop the choking by patting Mrs Broom on the back and administering the Heimlich manoeuvre, but they were unsuccessful.

Paramedics were called and tried to revive the patient, who had now stopped breathing. They gave up when one of the nurses passed on a message to stop from Dr Brown, the doctor on duty that day.

Pathologist Dr Alison St John found a small piece of beef in Mrs Broom's larynx, which was the main cause of death, although she would have been weakened by a heart condition and a 15cm cancer in the colon, which had spread.

"I was quite surprised she was still alive with such extensive cancer," said Dr St John.

Coroner David Masters recorded a verdict of misadventure, but also expressed concern that Mrs Avery's request for a doctor to see her mother had not been acted on for five days and that Mrs Broom's choking on a sprout just hours earlier had not been reported.