Denial of food, water for about seven days or more has led to the death of a healthy, active grandmother. The death occurred at the hospital.

Joan Pertoldi, 76, was waiting for a hip operation when she was put on a nil-by-mouth regime at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn Garden City.

The members of her family told her that she will be operated on within two days but her surgery was postponed three times and twice because the prosthesis due to be inserted into the joint was not properly sterilised.

Reasons of other delays were shortage of staff over weekends at the hospital.

The surgery took place after eight days from the day she was admitted but due to the regimen she had become weak and could not recover and died in hospital a few weeks later.

The old lady was dropped by nurses once and this happened as did not consult physiotherapists’ notes which explained how much assistance she needed to walk.

Not having enough water, she developed a urinary tract infection and that led to blood poisoning because doctors failed to tackle the problem.

An investigation into this has been ordered by Hertfordshire coroner, Edward Thomas.