Prison medics had no idea a heroin addict inmate had a serious heart condition because they didn’t have her medical records, an inquest heard.

Sally Anne Palmer, who had been at Styal prison for a year, was taken to hospital after staff found her lifeless in her cell.

The 42-year-old widow died suddenly due to cardiac arrhythmia and Long QT Syndrome, an irregular heart rate which can lead to heart attack or death.

A jury at Macclesfield coroner’s court heard that her condition had been diagnosed in 1994 but that the prison had failed to get hold of her records when she arrived there or during the following year leading up to her death in March, 2010.

Returning a narrative verdict after the six-day inquest, the jury ruled the failure of medical staff to communicate properly with each other and transfer clinical notes between prisons and the hospital were factors that contributed to her death. But they said it was Mrs Palmer’s own drug addiction and in particular her ‘non-compliance’with doctors’advice that had been the most important factors.

Following the inquest, coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said he would write to the head of healthcare at HMP Styal making recommendations.

The inquest heard that Mrs Palmer, who was originally from Blackpool, had been a heroin since she was 18.

In 1994 she was admitted to hospital after having three suspected heart attacks and was found to have epilepsy, arrhythmia and Long QT syndrome. She came to Styal Prison on March 20, 2009 after more than two years on the run from Askham Grange open prison where she was serving 12 years for intent to supply heroin.

But on admission no record of her medical history was available to staff which the jury said would have alerted them to the severity of her condition and would have helped them when prescribing medication.

And during the 12 months she was at the prison there was a failure to obtain the records, which only became available to doctors at the jail after her death.

The jurors also concluded that her initial health screening at Styal was ‘overly brief’. They heard that Mrs Palmer was prescribed methadone, a heroin substitute, which may have aggravated her heart condition.

On March 18 she was taken to hospital after collapsing. She was given an ECG at the prison which the inquest heard was not made available to the hospital.

Then on March 20 she was admitted again with suspected heart problems. On her return staff at the prison were worried about her condition and urged her to return to hospital, which she said she would do after the weekend. But at 3am on March 21 she was found ‘cold and without a pulse’ in her bed by a prison nurse.

They tried to resuscitate her but the defibrillator could not be operated. Dr Lesley Watson an A&E consultant at Wythenshawe hospital said it would have made no difference if they could not find a pulse.

A hospital spokesman said after the inquest: "Our staff here did everything we could to help Sally. Then we offered her follow-up care which she refused."

A Prison Service spokesperson said: "The National Offender Management Service will consider the inquest findings to see what lessons can be learned in addition to those already learned as a result of the investigation conducted by the Prisons Ombudsman."