Doctors were not to blame for the death of an 86-year-old woman during a routine procedure, an inquest heard.

Olive Read, of Heath Farm, Great Milton, died after an artery was damaged as staff at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, tried to give her a tracheotomy to help her breathe.

It is belived to have been the first time someone has died in such circumstances.

Forensic pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt, who carried out the post-mortem on Mrs Read, said medical staff were not to blame as they could not have known the artery was there. It is usually in the shoulder, but had moved to Mrs Read's throat area following an earlier operation.

She had been admitted to hospital last June after hitting her head at home on a cupboard. She underwent two operations to remove blood from her brain and after the second it was decided to link her to a ventilator so her breathing could be controlled while she recovered.

Dr David Shlugman, a consultant anaesthetist at the infirmary, said the best way of hooking the patient up to a ventilator for a long period was through a small hole in the neck, known as a tracheotomy.

But he had difficulty in piercing the windpipe and when a colleague tried, Mrs Read started to bleed profusely. She later died. Dr Shlugman said the equipment used was safe, tried and tested and he could not find a similar case that had been reported before.

Assistant deputy coroner Dr Richard Whittington recorded a verdict of accidental death.