A 105-year-old woman died only hours after she saw in the new millennium, shortly after being given the wrong drug in hospital, an inquest heard yesterday.

Former seamstress Minnie Whitfield was mistakenly given morphine meant for a patient on the same ward at a Teesside hospital.

The mix-up happened during a "chaotic" night on New Year's Day 2000, at the Carter Bequest Hospital, Middlesbrough, the inquest in the town heard.

It was said that several patients, including Mrs Whitfield, had problems swallowing tablets, so the pills were broken up and mixed with jam. Two of the cups with the jam mix got switched in error and Mrs Whitfield was given the wrong one.

But her son, Keith Whitfield, said he hoped no criminal action would be taken.

"Staff at Carter Bequest have been excellent and cared for my mother's every need. What has happened has been a tragic accident. I do not wish for the nurse involved to be prosecuted," he said.

Staff Nurse Irene Kirby, who gave bedridden Mrs Whitfield the morphine, told police: "It just hit me like a thunderbolt that what I had given her was not hers."

Home Office pathologist Dr Peter Cooper said that Mrs Whitfield had severe dementia and heart disease.

Either or one of these would predispose her to bronchial pneumonia, which was the cause of her death.

Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Nurse Kirby has been disciplined and transferred.