THE family of a grandmother who choked to death on a sandwich in York Hospital has received a five-figure damages settlement.

Lilian Hugill, 84, was admitted to hospital with a urine infection, but lawyers acting for her family say she died after staff failed to note she was not wearing false teeth and should only have been served soft food.

Her family say they will always struggle to come to terms with what happened and how she died, especially after she had battled other illnesses including bladder cancer.

A spokesperson for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “A settlement has now been agreed in this case. We regret the circumstances of Mrs Hugill’s death and we are sorry for the impact this has had on her family.”

Medical negligence specialists Hudgell Solicitors, which represented Mrs Hugill’s family, said medical staff who admitted her to the Acute Medical Unit in April 2014 failed to note she was not wearing her bottom set of dentures, despite being prompted to ask the question in the hospital paperwork.

As a result she was wrongly given an egg sandwich with crusts just hours later, said the lawyers.

They said she choked on the sandwich and suffered a heart attack and hypoxic brain injury, which led to bronchopneumonia.

She died a week later, a death her family says highlights how elderly patients are being let down by hospitals.

Mrs Hugill’s daughter and son-in-law, Linda and Mike Garbutt, successfully took legal action against the York hospital trust.

The couple's lawyers said the trust admitted that had appropriate care been provided, Mrs Hugill, a former print manager at The University of York, would not have choked and her death would have been avoided.

Mr Garbutt, 63, from Thorganby, near York, said: “How can someone be admitted to hospital with a basic urine infection and this happen? Lilian was let down at a time of life when people most need good healthcare."

Mr Garbutt said he "couldn’t believe" the hospital gave Mrs Hugill a sandwich when she didn’t have a complete set of teeth.

He said: "They kept her comfortable on morphine but she passed away a week later. She was only conscious very briefly during that time and she knew who we were but she couldn’t communicate. It was devastating."

He added: "Something has to be done to improve standards of care and to make sure lessons are learned.”

Solicitor Tasmin White said: “This is a really tragic and upsetting case and one where had the very basic standards of care with regards to treating elderly and vulnerable patients been followed, this lady would not have died.”

Mr Garbutt added: “It has affected our family massively."

In an inquest in September 2015 coroner Jonathan Leach recorded a conclusion of accidental death.