MRSA bug ate my thigh

John-Martin Fulton - John-Martin Fulton • Last updated 23 Apr 2008 11:38

AN Irvine man who contracted MRSA said he was left in agony for six weeks by doctors - wondering if his leg would have to be cut off.

Robert Reid, 56, eventually had to have a large chunk of his thigh removed in an operation to stop the superbug.

He said: 'I"ve never felt pain like that in my life. It"s hard not to be bitter.'

The Broomlands grandfather of four claimed he contracted MRSA during a straightforward absece operation at Crosshill Hospital. And he said a run of medical mistakes meant he had to go back four times over two years before the damaging disease was stopped.

Only when most of his leg was ravaged with holes, he said, did doctors admit that his antibiotics weren"t working.

And by then he faced losing his leg.

'My GP had to push to get me back into hospital,' he said.

'And when I got to see the surgeon he said no amount of antibiotics were going to help.'

'I asked him if I was going to lose my leg and he said he didn"t know.

But Robert, who was already suffers from a severe bowel condition, said he was not treated as an emergency and was told to return in six or seven weeks.

He also claimed that the hospital made a range of serious mistakes - not giving him his prescribed amount of anti-biotics, making and breaking operation appointments, walking out of consultations and leaving him on busy wards even though he had MRSA.

Meanwhile, Medical Director of NHS Ayrshire and Arran Robert Masterton said: 'Our sympathies are with Mr Reid but it would be factually incorrect to confirm that he contracted MRSA in our hospital.

'We have not received a complaint from Mr Reid and we would urge him to do so, should he so wish.

'We take infection prevention and control very seriously and have an established Infection Control Team working in our hospitals.'

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This article appeared in Irvine Times 23 Apr 08

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