A 17-STONE Westbury woman had five times the maximum dosage of a prescribed tranquilliser in her blood when she died, an inquest heard.

Diabetes and gallstone sufferer Julia Espie, 66, was found dead in bed at her Phoenix Rise home in Westbury by her 23-year-old grandson.

The day before she had twice visited doctors at Warminster Hospital complaining of pains.

Coroner Nigel Brookes, sitting at Chippenham Magistrates Court on Thursday, said there was no evidence of neglect by doctors, who made two different diagnoses in the space of 12 hours.

The inquest heard how former Bowyers worker Mrs Espie had a history of chronic depression and obesity and was in possession of a cocktail of prescribed drugs, inclu-ding the tranquilliser, Amitriptyline.

Dr Susan Burrows, a consultant pathologist based at Salisbury District Hospital, said five times the therapeutic level of Amitriptyline was found in the grandmother's blood which loosely matched the estimated number of tablets missing from Mrs Espie's prescription.

The overdose would have triggered a fatal heart attack.

Levels of the tranquilliser were recorded at 819mg per litre of blood. The drug reaches toxic levels at 430mg, with the highest recorded case in post mortem examinations clocked at 8,000mg.

Westbury GP Julia Taylor said Mrs Espie was failing to control the diabetes condition and often took too much medication for aches and pains.

She said: "Certainly from in the past she had a tendency to overtake tablets to relieve symptoms. That is the only explanation I can think of."

Mrs Espie's daughter, Julia Rogers, said her mother failed to keep appointments with dieticians about her weight problem and was unable to have an operation to remove the gallstones because of her size.

She said her mother was a 'comfort or secret eater' and did not heed advice on how to deal with her illness.

Mr Brookes said there was no evidence Mrs Espie had any suicidal thoughts and no evidence of neglect by doctors at Warminster Hospital.

"She was not the best of patients," he said.

"She didn't always attend appointments when she should do. She didn't always take her medication precisely when she should. She didn't control her eating as advised and she had a history of chronic depression."

Verdict: Misadventure.