A hospital trust was ordered to pay £100,000 today after a mother who had just given birth died due to a mix-up between "identical-looking" drugs.

Mayra Cabrera, 30, died hours after giving birth to son Zac, who survived, at Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, on May 11 2004.

A nurse wrongly attached the epidural anaesthetic Bupivacaine to an intravenous drip attached to her arm instead of saline solution which she needed to help bring her blood pressure back up.

Mrs Cabrera - who was a nurse at the same hospital - died within minutes from a heart attack caused by the toxic effects of Bupivacaine.

The two drugs had "almost identical packaging" and her life could have been saved if the bags were kept in separate cupboards, the Health and Safety Executive said today.

The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was ordered to pay £75,000 in fines and £25,000 in costs by a judge at Bristol Crown Court. The Trust had pleaded guilty to an offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.