A coroner today called for new safety measures to prevent a repeat of a Sussex hospital patient's death.

Philip Silsbury, 74, was wrongly injected with a painkiller into a vein rather than his spine during an operation.

He died three days after the bungle at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, in February.

At the inquest today, it emerged that a consultant anaesthetist picked up the wrong drug, which led to a "cardiac catastrophe".

Dr Michael Twohig had meant to inject replacement body fluids into Mr Silsbury's vein but instead he attached a bag of the powerful painkiller bupivicaine, which should have been given via the spine.

Brighton and Hove Coroner Veronica Hamilton Deeley recorded a verdict of accidental death. She added: "I hope that from this tragic occurrence we will be able to learn and put into place procedures so this cannot happen again."

An internal report by the Brighton Health Care NHS Trust and an independent report by the Royal College of Anaesthetists recommended that drugs that are given intravenously should be kept separate from those injected into the spine.

They called for better labelling to make it easier for the proper selection of drugs to be made under pressure.

Dr Charles Turton, medical director of Brighton Healthcare NHS Trust, told the inquest: "This was a misconnection error. The wrong thing was connected to the wrong place.

"What we would wish for would be a national standard and national guidance on more satisfactory labelling, whether it be colour coding or different coloured bags. And we would like to see a mechanical device preventing the connection of bags to certain administrations."

Mr Silsbury, of Kent Road, Littlehampton, died in intensive care at the Royal Sussex. He was undergoing an operation to repair an aortic aneurysm when the error happened.

Earlier the inquest heard a statement by Mr Silsbury's wife Phyllis that he had recovered well from a coronary artery bypass graft operation at the same hospital in October last year.

The coroner was told that the operation went to plan until Dr Twohig warned that Mr Silsbury's vital signs were deteriorating.

Dr Twohig said before problems arose he went into a nearby anaesthetists' room to fetch more replacement fluid, called hetastarch.

He said: "I looked for the hetastarch under a workbench but I could not find any. I got up and saw a bag of what I assumed was hetastarch. I went back to theatre and put it up. I thought it was hetastarch. Mr Silsbury then had some sort of cardiac arrest."

A post-mortem examination found Mr Silsbury had suffered multiple organ failure, from which he died together with a cardiac arrest caused by an overdose of Bupivicaine.

The inquest also heard that when the drama unfolded, Dr Twohig was without his assistant anaesthetist nurse Jean Watson, who had gone to fetch more drugs from another theatre two minutes' walk away.

Dr Twohig said it was important that a consultant anaesthetist always had an assistant but refused to say whether Ms Watson's absence contributed to the blunder.

Since Mr Silsbury's death, bags of bupivicaine are kept in a recovery room away from the theatre and from drugs given intravenously. Dr Twohig is being allowed to return to work.

A spokesman for the trust said no legal action was being taken by Mr Silsbury's family.

Mrs Silsbury declined to comment after the inquest.