9:22am Wednesday 28th March 2007
By Nicola Davies
AN inquest has heard of a wife's shock when a Wistaston man with a history of perfect health died at Leighton Hospital four months after complaining of ankle pain.
John New, 59, of Park Drive died on July 3 last year after contracting the hospital superbug MRSA, amongst other complications, the Coroner's Court at Crewe heard.
The father-of-two went rapidly downhill after a three-week stay in hospital in May to treat atypical pneumonia following a diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis in April for which he was prescribed Warfarin.
Shortly after his discharge from Leighton in June, Mr New was re-admitted with severe abdominal pain.
The inquest was told that 24 hours after being admitted to A&E Mr New's face swelled to twice its normal size and his body erupted in a rash of pustulated blisters which became infected with MRSA five days before his death.
Tests revealed a grossly deranged biochemistry and symptoms of major allergic reaction.
Dr John Mckay, a consultant physician at Leighton Hospital, said: "I'd never seen anything quite as serious before.
"It was a very severe infection on top of an allergic reaction most likely caused by the antibiotics although there is no way of proving whether it was due to Warfarin or the antibiotics."
The father-of-two was treated for MRSA septicaemia on a preventative basis, as tests confirming the condition were not returned until after his death, and he was thought by doctors to be improving.
Dr McKay added: "I went home on the Friday thinking he was getting better and was astonished when I came in on Monday and found out that he'd died.
"Swabs showed that he had bacteraemia from MRSA which was the precipitating event leading to his cardiac arrest."
Mr New's wife Janet said: "We were married for 35 years and he had never been ill until the ankle pain."
Janet Napier, deputy Coroner for Cheshire recorded a narrative verdict of multi-organ failure and septicaemic MRSA following on from pneumonia and generalised allergic reaction.
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