Tennesse woman 'nearly Shipman victim'

A Yorkshire woman now living in Tennessee believes she may have been one of the first intended victims of Harold Shipman.

Elaine Oswald thinks Shipman gave her an overdose when he visited her in 1974.

She was then admitted to Burnley General Hospital and could not understand why she was being treated as a drug addict.

Mrs Oswald said she went to Shipman's surgery because of a pain in her side. He gave her a prescription for painkillers and then visited her later that day to take a blood sample.

Mrs Oswald said: "I averted my eyes from the needle. When my consciousness returned I was lying on the floor at the foot of my bed. Dr Shipman and a woman and child were watching as a paramedic took my pulse."

Shipman said she had suffered an extreme reaction to the painkillers and admitted her to hospital, where he visited her every day.

Her mother-in-law Nellie Oswald, who still lives in Todmorden, said: "I don't know what he told them at Burnley Hopital but they thought she was a drug addict. It has been very distressing. All this about Shipman has brought it back."