Friends of tragic Teresa Innes who has been left in a coma after suffering a suspected medical bungle say it would have been better if she had died.

Every day they face the heart breaking sight of Teresa, hooked up to machines and tubes in the intensive care unit of Bradford Royal Infirmary, where she has lain since September.

Sometimes as they gently talk to her or brush her hair its seems as if her eyes fix on them, but it is false hope. Teresa has been left brain damaged by what is believed to have been a terrible error and her chances of ever leading a normal life again are slim.

"Her life was in their hands and they let her down," claimed 42-year-old Dena Derwent, of Lime Street, Bradford, who was like a sister to Teresa.

"Her heart stopped for 30 minutes but they kept trying to revive her," Dena said. "If she had been in a car crash they would not have tried for so long. They did because they knew it was their fault," she claimed.

"She would have been better off dying. She will never be our Teresa again."

What should have been a simple surgical procedure to treat an abscess on her leg turned into a nightmare when staff are thought to have mistakenly given the 36-year-old mother-of-one a form of penicillin, a drug she is allergic to.

Teresa, who was wearing a bracelet to warn staff of her allergy, immediately went into anaphylactic shock, which stopped her heart. She was resuscitated by a crash team but her brain had been starved of oxygen for vital minutes.

Ever since she has been in a vegetative state and just two weeks ago her family were faced with the impossible question of whether they would want her resuscitated if she relapsed.

"We know that she would not want to live like this but at the end of the day we have to give her a chance," said her aunt Sheila Innes. "We want her treated as long as there is a breath in her body."

Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, said an investigation was under way and her relatives were being kept fully informed of developments.

Now they have called a further meeting for next week to discuss the long-term prospects and care of Teresa, who has a 17-year-old son.

For her friend Dena it is a meeting which should never have been necessary. "Teresa was so frightened of penicillin," she said.

"She would have been saying all along to the doctors not to give it to her. She had had two scares before.

"Once she had a reaction when she just licked a spoon which she had used to give penicillin medicine to her nephew and the second time when she took a penicillin tablet to treat an infection she had to be rushed to hospital.

"She was a perfect mate to me and all this has just been a total nightmare. I am gutted and cannot believe that she will ever be the same again.