An 87-year-old woman died eight days after being thrown to the floor by an automatic door when shopping with family members at her local Morrisons, an inquest heard on Tuesday.

A conclusion of accidental death was recorded on Nesta Thomas, of Cae’r Saint, Caernarfon, who died in February 2016.

Pathologist Dr Mark Lord explained that death was due to pulmonary embolism after blood clots had travelled to her chest from her leg while she lay immobile with a fractured vertebrae in her spine at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor.

Coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said the inquest, at Caernarfon, had been delayed because of health and safety investigations and medical inquiries.

Morrisons had changed the type of doors at the store following the incident.

Mrs Thomas was a retired cleaner and her daughter, Christine Hughes, said she had been a lifelong smoker.

She described how her mother had followed her from the store, but the doors shut against her, throwing her against a metal barrier and to the floor.

“She was shocked, couldn’t move and said she had done something to her back,” Mrs Thomas’s daughter recalled.

Mrs Thomas wouldn’t agree to an ambulance being called and was taken home, but when she was no better the next day, she was taken to hospital, where she was treated for an ongoing chest infection.

Mr Pritchard Jones, recording his conclusion, said automatic doors which swung from hinges had afterwards been replaced with sliding doors, so there would be no point in him contacting Morrisons.

“The incident with the doors was an accident,” he declared.