A 68-year-old woman who was admitted to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital with a fractured hip died nearly three weeks later from an overdose of paracetamol, an inquest has heard.

Margaret Cynthia Shearer, known as Cynthia, from Oswestry, was admitted in March after a fall.

She was diagnosed with a fractured hip but her condition deteriorated after she was prescribed an adult dose of paracetamol by junior doctor Hala Konona, the hearing was told.

An inquest at Edinburgh House in Wem yesterday heard Mrs Shearer weighed 36 kilos, five-and-a-half stone, and had been given a dosage for someone 14 kilos over her weight.

A statement read out on behalf of Dr Emily Garforth, specialist registrar at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said the great-grandmother received a total of seven doses of 1g paracetamol intravenously over 48 hours.

It added she became increasingly unwell and was transferred to intensive care where she was diagnosed with liver failure.

Mrs Shearer’s son Adrian told the inquest the family had been told by doctors the liver failure was the result of a paracetamol overdose. Mrs Shearer’s condition deteriorated and she died in hospital 18 days later on April 12 from multiple organ failure.

Mr Shearer said: “On March 25 she had deteriorated, this had come as a shock to me. She was out of it and not responding.”

Ian MacLennan, nurse manager at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust told the inquest stringent new measures had been put in place at the two acute hospitals since the incident.

Mr John Ellery, coroner for mid and north west Shropshire, said: “We are going to hear from Dr Kenneth Scott that Mrs Shearer died from the effects of a paracetamol overdose.”

Mr Stephen Campbell, for the Shearer family, said the British National Formulary recommends that children and adults weighing less than 50kg be given 15mg of intravenous paracetamol for every kilo.

Dr Konona said: “One gramme of paracetamol four times daily was the standard dose given to every adult. I felt it was appropriate as an effective pain killer.”

The inquest continues.