A WOMAN choked to death while eating a mixed grill at a restaurant in Ebbw Vale, despite valiant efforts by her daughter and a fellow diner to save her.

Karen Hopkins and daughter Rhiannon Hopkins had been enjoying a meal at the town's Brewer's Fayre on the evening of Sunday August 25 last year, after a day out in west Wales.

Care assistant Mrs Hopkins, 47, of Bevan Avenue, Tredegar, had ordered a mixed grill, but around 10 minutes into the meal shebegan to choke on a piece of food, a hearing at Gwent Coroner's Court in Newport was told.

In a statement read out at the inquest into her mother's death, Ms Hopkins described slapping her mother on the back several times as she coughed.

Another diner then twice attempted the Heimlich manoeuvre in an attempt to dislodge the food stuck in Mrs Hopkins' throat.

This was partially successful, but Mrs Hopkins - who had previously been unable to speak - said "I am going, I am going", before collapsing to the floor.

She became unresponsive and despite further attempts to help her, including from paramedics, she was pronounced dead.

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Senior Coroner for Gwent Caroline Saunders read a statement from paramedics which stated that despite removing a large piece of food from her "larynx area", they had found it extremely difficult to get a tube into her airway.

A post mortem examination revealed that were residual pieces of food found in the larynx.

The cause of death was determined as acute respiratory obstruction due to food getting stuck in her throat.

Ms Saunder concluded that Mrs Hopkins' death had been an accident.