I'll sue the hospital, threatens widow in superbug outbreak

Great-grandfather Leslie Burton-Pye, 74, was infected with Clostridium difficile five weeks ago - three months after the superbug claimed its first victim at James Paget Hospital in Norfolk.

But his widow Mavis claims her husband would never have gone in for treatment had he known there was an outbreak.

Retired road worker Mr Burton-Pye was admitted into the James Paget in late February for a blood transfusion and released shortly afterwards.

He was readmitted after developing diarrhoea, only to be sent home again a fortnight ago. He went back into hospital on March 25 and died the following day.

Mrs Burton-Pye, 67, has accused health bosses of failing to explain properly how the superbug had contributed to her husband's death.

She said the hospital had only revealed that another 16 patients had been struck down with C-difficile on Friday. She is planning to sue the hospital.

She said: "I knew it was no ordinary bug he'd picked up. It was terrible - you can't imagine. Then the doctor wrote this funny word on the death certificate, which didn't mean anything to me.

"But I didn't know that people had been dying because of this bug since December until I saw the news on Friday.

"If we'd known when he went into hospital, he wouldn't have gone in. He could have had more iron tablets.

"It is absolutely diabolical that he caught this thing on a routine visit. I don't know why they didn't tell people before. It seems all wrong. I just can't believe he has gone."

C difficile is naturally carried in the gut by one-in-12 of the population, who do not suffer any side effects.

But hospital patients are often vulnerable because strong antibiotics kill off healthy' bacteria, leaving them open to infection by the drug-resistant C difficile.

The 027 strain, which arrived in Britain from the U.S. four years ago, has been identified in 40 hospitals.

The highest number of deaths was at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where 65 people died over three years.

But the outbreak at the 500-bed NHS James Paget Hospital - where doctors have listed the superbug as a "contributory factor" on death certificates - has caused the greatest number of deaths in the shortest period.

Most of the victims at the hospital were over 65. Five survivors needed major bowel surgery.

The case once again highlights the Government's failure to clamp down on cases of superbugs in hospitals.

In 2004, the then Health Secretary John Reid pledged deaths would be halved by 2008.

Instead, mortality rates have soared. Last month, figures showed superbugs caused 5,436 deaths in 2005 alone. Cdifficile now claims twice as many lives as MRSA.

Some experts believe the true figure is more than 27,000.

The James Paget Hospital said it has introduced a "rigorous" new hygiene policy since the outbreak.