Hospital bosses have apologised after mistakenly telling a woman her grandmother was dead.

Dionne Cox had buried her grandfather the day before she received an early morning call from Brighton General Hospital saying her grandmother had also passed away.

She phoned her brother Danny Higham and her mother straight away to break the bad news.

But minutes later the nurse called back, admitting there had been a mistake and Pearl Higham, 92, in hospital with a bladder infection, was alive.

Mr Higham, 32, a window cleaner from Brighton, said: "When I got the call I was so shocked and upset. We had just buried my granddad, Clifford, and then this came on top of it.

"When I discovered there had been a mistake I was really angry. It was an appalling thing to happen."

Ms Cox, also 32, from Woodingdean, Brighton, criticised hospital managers' handling of the affair.

She said: "It was an absolute nightmare. The phone went at about 6.30am and the nurse told me the terrible news.

"I was shocked and upset. The hospital said they were very sorry Nan had died and asked whether I wanted to see her. I then had to start thinking about the procedures to follow."

Ms Cox was stunned because she had seen her grandmother sitting up and eating lemon meringue pie the day before.

She said: "People talk about the phrase gobsmacked and that was exactly what I was. I couldn't talk to him. My mouth had dropped open and there was nothing coming out.

"The nurse was really, really sympathetic but I could not get my head round it. It was terrible.

"Hospitals have wristbands on patients. How on earth they managed to get the names muddled up is completely beyond me."

Ms Cox said more than a week after the incident she still had not had a letter of apology from the hospital.

She said: "They've got my name and address - it's on my nan's notes so they could have got hold of me easily.

"The phone call came on a Friday and by the following Wednesday I still had not had a proper acknowledgement.

"It was only when I called the complaints department again and insisted on speaking to the chief executive that he called me back.

"I should not have had to force the issue. He should have been on the phone to me immediately. I felt the apology was half-hearted."

Ms Cox, who has two sons and works for American Express in Brighton, says she has lost faith in the hospital.

She said: "My nan is elderly and not very well. One day I might have to go through all this again if anything happens to her.

"I am absolutely disgusted my family has had to go through this."

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Brighton General, said: "The trust has offered its unreserved apology to Mrs Higham's family for the distress this incident has caused.

"The error occurred when two patients were moved in the ward. The case notes for each patient were moved with them but unfortunately the whiteboard at the end of the ward by the nurses' station was not wiped clean and the wrong information was therefore on display.

"We have launched a formal investigation to see what lessons can be learnt and consider whether our procedures need to be changed.

"Our interim chief executive Anthony McKeever spoke to the next of kin ... and a formal letter of apology has already been sent, as promised, ahead of a report on the outcome of our investigations."