Grandfather 'killed by blister on his toe from new shoes'

But just over a week later, the retired electrician suffered two heart attacks.

He was taken to hospital and diagnosed with blood poisoning, or septicaemia, and died within a month.

His grieving family said they believed Mr Catterall would still be alive if the severity of his condition had been spotted sooner.

The fatal chain of events began with his new pair of shoes, which made the toes on his right foot rub together and left a painful blister.

The divorced father of three, who was on medication for heart problems and chronic asthma, made an appointment at his local clinic in Shevington, near Wigan, Greater Manchester.

The blister was treated by a district nurse who later discharged him with a pack of dressings and advice on avoiding infection.

But according to his youngest daughter, Sara, 21, the sore continued to weep, and when she went to see him a week later on July 1 he confessed: "This toe is killing me."

Miss Catterall said yesterday: "I am no nurse, but I immediately knew he had septicaemia because my mum had had it before.

"There was a hole in his foot. I told him he had to go to the doctor but he said: 'They have discharged me'."

Unable to reach him by phone the next day, she called round and discovered that he had collapsed.

Mr Catterall was taken to Wigan Infirmary, where he was found to have suffered two heart attacks.

He appeared to rally and clung to life for four more weeks before doctors finally said they could do no more. Now his family wants to know why the clinic did not monitor his condition, given his medical problems.

His older daughter Sharon Gough, 36, a police officer, said: "Our dad didn't like to make a fuss - if a doctor or nurse told him a wound would heal itself he would take it as gospel.

"We want to know why he was discharged when he was. The wound was obviously still infected and the doctors will have known that it would not heal easily because of the medication he was on."

Miss Catterall added: "Our dad was a larger-than-life character and we loved him lots. It is because we love him so much that we are determined to get to the bottom of this."

Mr Catterall remained close to his ex-wife Jennifer. They also had a son Gareth, 37, and four grandchildren.

Ashton, Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust, which runs the clinic, said it would look into the case.

Yesterday Aruni Sen, treasurer of the British Association for Emergency Medicine and an A&E consultant, said septicaemia could set in frighteningly quickly.

"You would expect an apparently trivial wound to lead to a simple infection, but on occasions it could result in one that is virulent and aggressive,' he said.

"At the early stage you can't tell the difference, but when it spreads into the blood it can lead to organ failure. Patients must go back to their doctor if they're not getting better."