Superbug death was 'diabolical'

The widow of a man who fell victim to a superbug that has claimed 17 lives at a Norfolk hospital yesterday described his death as "diabolical" - reports the Sunday Telegraph.

Great-grandfather Leslie Burton-Pye, 74, was infected with Clostridium difficile in January while visiting the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston for a blood transfusion.

He fell ill soon after and was admitted to the hospital where he stayed until released in mid-March. He was re-admitted last Sunday and died the next day.

Yesterday, his widow, Mavis, 67, said: "I wish I hadn't let him go in for the transfusion. He had health problems before then but he lived with them and was okay up to the point where he went to hospital. It is heartbreaking."

Mrs Burton-Pye, who lived with her husband in the Norfolk Broads town of Acle, added: "He had just gone into hospital for some blood and picked this bug up. It is absolutely diabolical that he caught this thing on just a routine visit. I just can't believe he has gone. It won't sink in."

She said Mr Burton-Pye's family - including five children, nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren - had been devastated by his death.

Bosses at the hospital, which has been infected with the virulent "027" strain of the superbug, admit it could take 12 weeks to get the outbreak under control.

The 17 deaths, almost all of people aged 65 and over, have occurred since December. Sixteen more patients have been infected but survived.

The hospital has invested an extra £400,000 to tackle the outbreak but Wendy Slaney, the acting chief executive of the hospital, said it could take months to bring under control.

Perhaps the problem could be solved more quickly and more deaths avoided, if the trust had more money to invest in tackling it.

Sadly local MP Tony Wright intends to vote to improve government plans to hand 60% extra - £2.5bn more a year - to the EU ... a body that hasn't had its accounts approved for 12 years in a row.

What a waste of money, some of which could have been put to better use in his own constituency. A choice that's likely to be very hard to justify to local voters come the next election, when we point out such irresponsible actions with public funds.