THE family of a tragic divorcee who died in hospital after being given the wrong medication said it should never happen again.

And the family has attacked the decision to allow the nurse involved in the death of 37-year-old bridegroom-to-be Craig Richardson back on the wards at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Mr Richardson of Kershaw Street, Tyldesley, died of a massive heart attack -- brought on by the medication.

Today hospital chiefs promised to review their policies and introduce extra safeguards.

They have described Mr Richardson's death as a "tragic mistake, a human error."

Bolton Coroner, Mr Aidan Cotter, at an inquest yesterday refused to name or call the nurse to give evidence in an unprecendented move to protect her from "public humiliation or degradation".

But she now awaits to hear from her professional body, the UK Central Care Register, which will judge whether she continues to have a right to practise as a nurse.

Mr Cotter was challenged about refusing to put the nurse in the witness stand by the family's barrister, Joel Donovan QC, who said that the nurse's evidence was in the public interest.

Mr Cotter said: "I am very much aware that this matter is in the interest of the public and must be brought out into the open. I do not believe that there has been one single fact left out of this inquiry.

"I honestly believe that the nurse would not be able to add any more detail. She would break down in tears on the first question."

Mr Cotter said Craig Richardson's death was "an accident" and he was satisfied that the nurse did not commit manslaughter.

The inquiry heard how Mr Richardson suffered a heart attack and died after being given the wrong fluid in an intravenous drip.

Doctors fought for more than two hours to resuscitate Mr Richardson -- who collapsed and died on New Year's Day.

Mr Richardson suffered a massive cardiac arrest after being given a heart regulating drug instead of a blood pressure drug.

He died two hours after the Liguocaine was infused into his body. It was administered by a staff nurse in charge of three patients in the hospital's medical assessment unit.

The former delivery driver went to the accident and emergency department on New Year's Eve after suffering severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

He had been waiting for test results following an urgent referral to a gastroenterologist in Bolton on December 14 -- but test results had not been typed up until after Mr Richardson's death.

Mr Richardson, who had lost two stone in three weeks, was suffering abdominal pain and was admitted to the medical admissions unit just after midnight under suspicion of suffering a diabetes related disease.

Newly-qualified Dr Christian Macutkiewicz, described as "young and inexperienced" by the coroner, was on duty and decided to put Mr Richardson on Gelofusine due to blood pressure problems.

He was cleared of any blame over Mr Richardson's death. He told the court that he noticed that Mr Richardson had a thin, sallow look to his face and did not "look well".

He wrote instructions for the duty staff nurse to put up an intravenous drip and also verbally told her to use Gelofusine -- a drug which controls blood pressure.

Instead, the inquest heard, the nurse put up the wrong bag of fluid which poisoned Mr Richardson over two hours.

Consultant physician Dr Jacqueline Bene was among the crash team who attempted to resuscitate Mr Richardson, who was discovered collapsed as she carried out her daily morning inspection.

A ward sister alerted the crash team to the fact that the wrong drip had been given.

The nurse who made the mistake was reported as saying: "Oh s***! Oh s***! I've put up the wrong bag." Dr Bene urged staff to call the poisons unit at Guys Hospital, London, for advice on how to save Mr Richardson.

Guy's staff instructed resuscitation -- for more than one-and-a-half hours -- but this failed to save him.

A pacemaker machine was connected -- but it didn't work when it was switched on.

The hospital told the inquest that the pacemaker was not needed because Mr Richardson's vital signs had not returned. But the inquest heard that there was no back up pacemaker if it had been needed.

The inquest heard that on the morning of the incident the nurse reported feeling unwell and had been forced to wear glasses due to an abrasion on her eye.

Although she told her managers that her eyesight in her glasses was not normal, she reported that she could still read.

Director of Nursing Sue Reed, who headed up the hospital's internal inquiry, said that the nurse had also admitted to feeling unwell and had gone to bed early on New Years Eve with a view of not going into work the next day.

The nurse, described as full of genuine and deep remorse, has been unable to explain how she made the mistake but told hospital managers that feeling unwell was a contributory factor. The inquest was shown exhibits of both of the drugs after hearing that there could have been a mix-up because of new packaging of the Gelofusine.

But the different names of the drugs were clearly marked on each fluid packet .A pathologist from Salford's Hope Hospital, Dr Susan Andrew, carried out the post mortem examination and revealed that Mr Richardson had no underlying disease and that he died from Lignocaine toxicity.

A second cause was also attributed to diabetic ketoacidosis -- a diabetic condition causing metabolic problems.

The posioning would have affected his brain and his heart, the pathologist added.