A CANCER-stricken pensioner who died after a medical procedure would have just "faded away" without it and was too ill for surgery, an inquest heard.

Nellie Dinsdale's tumour was perforated during an endoscopy at Burnley General Hospital and she died two days afterwards.

Medics had at first considered an operation but felt the 85-year-old was not well enough, the risks were too great and she probably would not have survived the anaesthetic.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, East Lancashire Coroner David Smith said Mrs Dinsdale, of Reedyford Road, Nelson, may have lived longer had she not had the investigation, but she would have been in more and more pain.

Doctors had taken the right decision not to put her through the stress of an operation.

Home Office pathologist Dr John Rutherford said Mrs Dinsdale of peritonitis due to the perforation of the cancer during endoscopy.

He said Mrs Dinsdale would not have died when she did but for the procedure but if no efforts had been made to discover the cause of her problems, she would have continued being sick, would have been suffering and her condition would have worsened.