A PENSIONER died in hospital just weeks after contracting a rare strain of the killer bug MRSA – which she caught from a member of staff who was treating her.

Grace Newman became seriously ill within weeks of being admitted to Southampton General Hospital, suffering from breathing difficulties for which she had a chest drain inserted to try and ease her problems.

Tests found the 75-year-old had become infected with an unusual form of the MRSA virus known as PVL, which left her in isolation, suffering diarrhoea and seriously ill, an inquest heard.

Southampton Coroner’s Court was told how Mrs Newman, whose husband Ron was battling cancer at the time but has since died, did eventually recover from the infection but she was weak, her condition deteriorated and she died within weeks.

A post-mortem was carried out which found she had contracted pneumonia in her final days.

The inquest heard how Mrs Newman had been admitted to the hospital on March 19, 2010, and a week later had the chest drain inserted.

Within days she was desperately ill and samples were taken that were tested before being sent away for further analysis.

It was mid-April when the PVL-producing MRSA was identified – a rare strain, which is more common in Europe but is becoming more prevalent worldwide.

Despite gradually recovering from the bug, Mrs Newman, a grandmother of five from Ellis Road in Thornhill, contracted pneumonia and died on May 21, which was complicated by the discovery she had lung cancer and a heart problem, said Dr Adrian Al-Badri, who carried out the post-mortem.

But it wasn’t until December that year, when a second patient being treated at Southampton General contracted the same rare PVL-producing MRSA, that medical bosses investigated and found the cases were linked.

Dr Graeme Jones, a director of infection prevention, told the inquest the strain was identified as being connected to the department where Mrs Newman was treated and all staff were screened.

The results found one member of staff, who was not named in the inquest but who treated both women, was carrying the bug and inadvertently passed it on.

A statement from the hospital read: “Screening of staff for MRSA is not carried out routinely, which is in line with national guidance.

“However, when transmission occurs more than once despite active control measures and aspects of the outbreak are unusual or suggest carriage by staff, screening is undertaken.

“As this was a rare strain of the infection and was discovered in two cases within six months of each other, a robust investigation was carried out to discover the source of infection and, following a widespread screening process, the carrier was found to be a member of staff who was subsequently treated and cleared.”

"I feared we had buried wrong person"

“I FEARED I had cremated the wrong body and that it wasn’t my mum in the coffin.”

That was the worry of the daughter of Grace Newman who told the inquest how she had received a post-mortem report on her mother – but the detail was so obscure she wasn’t sure it was definitely her.

Lorraine Edwards is still awaiting answers three years after her mother’s death about why the report contained: n the wrong height n claimed the deceased woman was “well nourished” when she was the opposite after weeks of being seriously ill fighting MRSA n said she had 6in scars on both of her hips when she didn’t have a single mark on them n stated she died in the community when she had in fact passed away in Southampton General Hospital.

Mrs Edwards said: “There was nothing on that report to identify her to me. There was nothing to say she was my mother. I can tell you that she was not that height, I can show you a picture. She had no scars on her hips... but a scar on the inside of her thigh.”

The inquest was told how the family, who didn’t even know Mrs Newman’s body had been moved to Winchester for an autopsy, then received a second post-mortem report with much of that detail removed.

Pathologist Dr Adrian Al-Badri, who gave evidence at the hearing, said: “I can assure you we did the autopsy on the right person.”

But today they are still demanding answers about how the report could have been so wrong after being told by coroner Keith Wiseman that he could not take the matter any further as part of the inquest hearing which is solely to determine the cause of Mrs Newman’s death.

Mrs Edwards told the Daily Echo: “We still cannot believe this happened.”