THE heartbroken family of a diabetic woman who died after simple blood tests were not carried out say lessons must be learned from her death.

Margaret Pitt had lived with type-one diabetes for more than 30 years but suffered a serious brain injury and died aged just 55 after staff at Redditch Alexandra Hospital failed to monitor her glucose levels properly.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has admitted twice failing to perform blood tests that would have shown the mother-of-three’s glucose levels had dropped.

It has paid an undisclosed settlement to her family as well as issuing a formal apology.

Mrs Pitt died in November 2010 and last year an inquest into her death heard how nurse sister Jackie Charman had failed to carry out the blood tests.

Deputy Worcestershire coroner Marguerite Elcock, who recorded a narrative verdict, described her actions as a “gross failure to provide basic medical treatment”.

The case has been referred by solicitors Irwin Mitchell to the Nursing and Midwifery Council watchdog, which is expected to announce its findings this autumn.

Mrs Pitt’s husband David, 62, said: “The entire family is distraught by her death and it’s hard not to remain angry that she was let down so badly by the nurses that were employed to care for her and make her better.

“We just hope Maggie’s death was not completely in vain and that lessons are learnt by trusts across the country so guidelines to protect patients like her will not be ignored again.”

Chris Tidman, deputy chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Trust, said: “A number of improvements have been made to our clinical processes and our staff training programmes to ensure that these mistakes don’t happen again.

“We again offer Mrs Pitt’s family our unreserved apologies over the failures identified in her care.”