Hospital bug found in dead couple

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A married couple died within 20 minutes of each other after both contracted the hospital bug Clostridium difficile at a Devon hospital.

Rosemary and Lionel Owen's beds were moved next to each other before their life support machines were turned off.

Mrs Owen's daughter Nina Griffith is considering legal action against the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

An inquest was told that an identical strain of the bug was identified in both Mr and Mrs Owen.

The couple died in the hospital's intensive care unit in January, a month before their 20th wedding anniversary.

It is desperate, absolutely awful, to watch your parents die like that Nina Griffith Greater Devon coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland told an inquest in Exeter that a post mortem examination found Mr Owen, 80, died of a brain haemorrhage because Clostridium difficile had increased the effect of the drug Warfarin which reduces blood clotting.

The cause of his 70-year-old wife's death was given as heart failure with Clostridium difficile as a contributory factor.

Their daughter Mrs Griffith, 39, from Exeter said: "It is desperate, absolutely awful, to watch your parents die like that.

"The staff were really good and wheeled my dad's bed into my mum's cubicle so when they died they were holding hands.

"They were both unconscious by that stage but at least they were together.

"I think somebody is to blame. I don't know who but someone needs to hold up their hands and say 'we did it wrong'."

Peter Adney, acting director of operations at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, said: "We are thoroughly investigating a complaint received from the family about the loss of Mr and Mrs Owen.

"The circumstances related to their loss are complex and we intend to do all we can to explain to their family what happened in hospital."

Earlier this month, the Clostridium difficile bacterium was linked to 90 deaths at the Kent and Sussex Hospital, Pembury Hospital and Maidstone Hospital, all run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.