The sisters of a woman who died after breaking her ankle are demanding an apology from GPs, who they claim could have done more to help her.

An inquest heard yesterday (August 18) that Pauline Dolley, 55, of Ruskin Walk, Bicester, suffered a blood clot on her lung after the fracture, which was caused when she slipped in snowy weather earlier this year.

Coronor Nicholas Gardiner recorded a verdict of accidental death, but Carol-Ann Gacesa, 56, and Margaret Appleby, 69, now want to know why doctors at Bicester's Victoria House surgery treated their sister's symptoms of severe chest pains and black vomit as a respiratory infection.

After the hearing, Mrs Gacesa said: "They thought we were worrying unnecessarily. I want some answers and an apology. I want them to look at what they've done.

"I know they aren't God, but surely they could have picked this up."

The inquest heard factory worker Mrs Dolley fell while walking to her job at Bicester firm Huber and Suhner on January 29.

Her colleague Susan Gibson, who had been walking with her, said: "That morning there had been a lot of snow and walking was very difficult due to the conditions.

"I met Pauline. She had passed her driving test but was worried about the driving conditions. She suddenly slipped. Her feet went from under her and she landed on her bottom."

Mrs Dolley, a widow and mother-of-four, was taken to The Horton Hospital, in Banbury, and referred to the fractures clinic.

Senior house officer Dr Athanasios Papavasileiou, said she was told to take aspirin every day to prevent a deep vein thrombosis, known as DVT, which is a blood clot in the leg that can travel up to the lung and turn into a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism.

He said: "There was swelling around the fracture and there was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis. I discussed this with the consultant as I always do when we have a new patient in the fracture clinic. Because she was obese and a smoker, she was at risk of DVT."

Mrs Gacesa and Miss Appleby looked after their sister at home, because she was in plaster and found it difficult to get around.

She started to get pain in her chest and was coughing up bloody mucus, and Dr Damien Hannon, of Victoria House surgery, prescribed antibiotics and pain relief when he visited her on Thursday, February 5. He called in again the next day, after she had her ankle replastered.

He said: "I took it that her pain was due to a respiratory infection."

He added that his colleague Dr John Galuszka visited a few days later, but Mrs Dolley died on Wednesday, February 19, before an ambulance could get to her home.

Pathologist Dr David Davies said her death was caused by a pulmonary embolism which had started as a DVT, and although the major clots may not have been detectable, smaller clots would have caused her to cough up blood.

Mrs Gacesa said: "Paul- ine was always short of breath, but she was screaming with the pain she had in her chest. She was in a lot of pain, more than I had ever seen her in before.

"It was the last couple of days of Pauline's life that were worst, because she didn't look right. That was why I called the doctor.

"Pauline suffered dreadfully and nothing will bring her back."

Mr Gardiner said: "It's clear that the original fall was entirely accidental. It was snowing and slippery and Pauline was obese and it would have been a heavy fall. She was put on aspirin as a prophylactic, but clearly it didn't work and she did die. I have to regard this as an accidental death, which was set in motion by the fall."

A spokesman at Victoria House surgery said they "could not possibly comment on anything that happens at this practice".