A woman died unexpectedly two days after a failed gallstones operation.

An inquest heard that Phyllis Cullen was diagnosed with the condition in July but the operation, performed under local anaesthetic, was delayed until September. The 74-year-old attended Winchester’s Royal Hampshire County Hospital on September 30 for the elected procedure, which Dr Francis Murphy, consultant physician, said was “delicate”.

He said he was unable to complete it after trying for 20 minutes because Mrs Cullen was very anxious and therefore not relaxed.

“I stopped, knowing there was an option for her to return in the next couple of weeks, when I think we would have succeeded,” he said.

She was discharged two hours later and returned home to Nether Wallop, near Stockbridge, but was taken back to hospital within hours after complaining of pain.

Doctors found she had contracted severe pancreatitis as a result of the procedure, from which she did not recover.

She died on October 3.

Dr Murphy said in the 10 years he has been performing the procedure, only two others have died, and Mrs Cullen’s case was “extraordinary”.

Senior coroner for central Hampshire, Grahame Short, recorded a narrative verdict.

He said: “The pancreatitis was not present prior to the procedure so therefore it’s right to say she developed it as a consequence of the procedure.

“Can I give my sympathy [to the family], this was completely unexpected and it must have been very upsetting.”