A FORMER mayor died after doctors sent her for an MRI scan - forgetting she had a pacemaker in her heart.

The radio waves from the scan scrambled the settings of 83-year-old Molly Brown's implant device and she died within minutes.

A coroner criticised the medical team for allowing the former magistrate to have the scan.

The great-grandmother, who served as a councillor in North Tyneside for 37 years, including a year as mayor, had been admitted to North Tyneside General Hospital twice in a matter of weeks because of blackouts and problems with walking.

There were clear references to Mrs Brown's pacemaker on her medical notes, but this "slipped the mind" of Dr Alexander Moorcroft, a consultant at North Tyneside Hospital's Ward 18.

He asked for her to be sent for an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan to investigate the problem.

Doctors requesting such scans are required to complete complicated safety forms that contain a number of questions - including one about a pacemaker.

Senior house officer Dr Anisha Jwalant, filled in the form, but only from memory and she failed to check back through Mrs Brown's medical notes, even though she had been adding to them earlier that day during the ward round.

Mrs Brown, of Wallsend, who was widowed 20 years ago, had four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

At an inquest into her death, Newcastle Coroner David Mitford criticised the medical staff at the hospital and said the health trust had inadequate procedures for avoiding risk situations such as these.

A spokeswoman for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust said: "We would like to offer our sincere condolences to the family of Mrs Brown.

"The trust greatly regrets that the procedures in place to safeguard patients' safety in respect of MRI scans failed on that occasion.

"Following the death of Mrs Brown the trust have put in place new procedures to ensure that the safety of all patients requiring MRI scans is protected."