A coroner has ordered a hospital to investigate how a patient died after she was given a drug she was allergic to.

Westminster Coroner Shirley Radcliffe adjourned the inquest into 24-year-old Kellie West on Friday (June 8) so St George's Hospital, Tooting, can look into why hospital notes did not flag up the allergy.

Miss West, from Wallington, died on January 14 after being given the drug Volplex, a plasma expander, to increase her blood pressure after complications arose during renal fistula surgery.

The inquest heard how Miss West, who suffered from Spina Bifida, Hydrocephalus and Epilepsy, had been treated for a necklace graft in October and was given Volplex but no harm was caused.

Dr Nicoletta Fossati, a consultant anaesthetist at St Georges' Hospital, told the coroner how Volplex and another drug Gelofusine were very similar.

Miss West's mother, Leslie West, who was in court to hear the outcome, told the coroner how her daughter was actually allergic to Gelofusine.

Dr Fossati said in hindsight she would not have used a Gelatin-based plasma expander had she have known of Miss West's allergy.

Coroner Shirley Radcliffe, said: "There seems to be a failure to document accurate allergy information". She said: "Miss West had a recognised allergy which had been recorded, but not recorded most recently."

Dr Michael Heath, consultant pathologist at St George' Hospital, told the inquest: "On the balance of probabilities the cause of death was an allergic reaction, likely to be gelatin."

The inquest will resume later this year after the hospital has carried out an investigation.