A young mother suffering from chronic kidney failure died after a hospital procedure went wrong, an inquest heard.

Mandie Clark, 28, from St Leonards, died at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, on September 5 last year after a catheter tube accidentally pierced her heart.

Police launched an investigation but no evidence of criminal behaviour was found.

Her grieving mother Anna Little said after the inquest she plans to campaign for more research into hospital mistakes.

Mrs Clark, of Herons Close, St Leonards, an auxiliary nurse at the Conquest Hospital, Hastings, and at homes for the elderly in the town, had a four-year-old son, Adam.

The two-day Brighton inquest heard she was admitted to the Conquest Hospital on September 4 after months of feeling unwell.

The following day she was transferred to the renal unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital where a catheter was inserted into her chest for kidney dialysis to begin.

Within seconds of the dialysis machine being operated, Mrs Clark collapsed and died.

She had been at the hospital for just three-and-a-half hours.

A post mortem showed a hole in her heart made by the catheter had caused her heart to fail.

Medical staff who gave evidence at the inquest said Mrs Clark showed no signs her heart had been punctured before she collapsed.

She had complained about feeling a pain in her chest and had compared it to indigestion.

Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley said Mrs Clark died as a result of a medical accident. She said: "It is an extremely rare situation. I don't take the view that neglect contributed to her death. She died because her heart was perforated."

Mrs Little said she accepted her daughter had died because of an accident but said too many mistakes were made in hospitals due to a shortage of staff and resources.

She said: "It has been a nightmare. Whatever the outcome of the inquest, it will never bring my daughter back.

"It is an accident that should not have happened but it did. There are too many accidents happening in hospitals. It is time we all started to complain.

"I don't want my daughter's death to be in vain. We must stop pushing mistakes under the carpet. People enter the nursing profession because they really care. They want to do right and to help others. But because they are rushed off their feet, accidents happen."

Mrs Little says families who suffer from an accident in a hospital should write letters of complaint, call for inquires and contact their MP and the media.

Mrs Little, who gave up her business in Bexhill after her daughter died to look after her grandson, said her daughter was unaware how seriously ill she was until she was admitted to hospital.

Doctors warned Mrs Clark would need a kidney transplant and Mrs Little said she had offered to donate one of her kidneys once her daughter's condition was stabilised.

She said: "Mandie had no idea how ill she was. She was even planning to have another baby."