A MOTHER-of-three has hit out at callous thieves who snatched her bag while she lay sedated and recovering in a hospital bed.

Joanne Rigby, 25, said she was left "sickened" by the theft which took place as she lay completely helpless in the Royal Bolton Hospital after a morphine injection.

She was in hospital for treatment to clots to her legs and had just had her dressings changed and returned to her bed on the orthopaedic ward.

Miss Rigby said: "I needed the injections when they changed my dressings.

"I returned to my room, which I had to myself, and just flaked out. When I woke up the bag had gone."

The bag, a black rucksack, had nothing of value inside except a mobile phone, her benefits book and pictures of her three children Jodie aged three, Toni, five, and Brinzley, seven.

She added: "I know you are not supposed to keep any valuables on you but you do need things when you are in hospital like change for the phone and photos of the children were to keep me going.

"I have to walk with crutches so the bag fitted nicely onto my back."

Hospital security and the police were informed but so far the bag or the culprit have not been traced.

But Miss Rigby, who lives in Tyldesley, believes that security at the hospital needs to be stepped up.

She said: "What worries me is that someone has come into my room while I was completely unconscious and gone through my private belongings.

"People can just come and go at the hospital as they please so anything could have happened while I lay there.

"I think they need to do something like have security cameras to prevent sick people like this from stealing from people when they are at their weakest."

A spokesman for the Royal Bolton Hospital confirmed the theft had taken place and that a complaint had been made.

She said: "We have to remember that hospitals are very busy places. We can always call security but to have security on every ward would cause difficulties for visitors and patients."