A PENSIONER who collapsed suddenly died of a rare condition that doctors had never seen before.

Jean Osborne was taken ill by her GP and was rushed to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

Doctors did tests and thought she may have had a tumour or bleed near her pancreas, but thought they had stabilised her.

But after a good response to treatment, she was taken to be weighed hours later, and collapsed again.

The 74-year-old then suffered complications from a bleeding artery which led to multi-organ failure.

At Brighton Coroner’s Court, doctors and experts from the hospital said that cases of aneurysms or pseudo aneurysms in this type of artery are “vanishingly rare”.

They said there have only been three or four examples in the world. Only with hindsight could they say why she had died.

Mrs Osborne died in September last year.

Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley gave a narrative verdict at her inquest, and said her condition was “almost unheard of”. She said on the balance of probability, Mrs Osborne had suffered a bleed at the GP’s surgery which had blocked itself, but when she went to be weighed, she suffered a “sudden” bleed that could not have been prevented.