An inquest has been opened and adjourned into the death of a Sussex man who died after being wrongly injected during surgery.

Philip Silsbury, 74, of Kent Road, Littlehampton, a retired railway ticket inspector, was given an injection of the painkiller Bupivicaine into a vein rather than his spine.

It happened during an operation at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. Mr Silsbury died on February 10 after spending three days in intensive care.

Mr Silsbury's widow, who was not named at Brighton and Hove Coroner's Court, pleaded through friends to be allowed to grieve in privacy.

A statement read in court by Brighton Health Care NHS Trust spokeswoman Melinda Stone said: "Mrs Silsbury is elderly and she is not at all well. She just wants to be left to grieve.

"All Mrs Silsbury wants is to lay her husband to rest peacefully."

The inquest heard that Mr Silsbury died from multiple organ failure and cardiac arrest.

He was being treated for an aortic aneurysm, which was also recorded as a further cause of death.

Brighton and Hove Coroner Veronica Hamilton Deeley was told that an internal investigation into the blunder was nearing completion.

And she heard that an independent inquiry by the Royal College of Anaesthetists started this week.

Stuart Welling, chief executive of Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, pledged to meet Mrs Silsbury once the inquiries had been concluded.

In a statement read in court, Mr Welling said: "I have expressed our deepest sympathies to Mrs Silsbury and I hope to meet her as soon as she feels ready to discuss the findings of these two investigations into the circumstances which led to her husband's tragic death."

The consultant anaesthetist who injected the drug remains suspended.

The inquest was adjourned until May 3, when the reports from both investigations will be available.