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CORONER Ian Smith is to raise concerns with hospital managers after hearing a pensioner contracted superbugs several times before his death.

Widower Charles Howell caught superbugs C-diff and Rotovirus, an infection which causes severe vomiting.

Staffordshire coroner Mr Smith has promised to contact nursing managers to raise concerns about the standard of care received by the 86-year-old.

Mr Howell, a resident of New Park House in Trent Vale, died at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire (UHNS) from a blood clot, which was caused by a lack of mobility due to a range of illnesses, including C-diff and Rotovirus.

The inquest into his death heard that over the past two years, Mr Howell's health had declined rapidly.

He suffered from angina, diabetes, obstructive chronic pulmonary disease, heart disease and kidney failure and had also contracted pneumonia and a urinary tract infection.

Mr Howell's daughter, Susan Vincent, of Leicester, told the inquest her father had been admitted into A&E suffering from dehydration, on March 11 last year.

He was transferred to the Royal Infirmary, then to Bucknall and Haywood Hospitals, where he first caught C-diff.

He was discharged from hospital and moved to New Park a month before he died. He was then readmitted to UHNS on September 5, suffering from projectile vomiting. He later tested positive for Rotovirus.

Mrs Vincent said: "He declined rapidly when they moved him to the general hospital.

"He was often left without the attention he needed.

"On the week that he died he was breathless. I asked the nurses three times and I was assured he was fine.

"Every time we went to see him his drip was empty. We just didn't feel the nurses were proactive with the care.

"Then on the morning dad died, I was contacted by telephone. The first lady who called me didn't speak much English and was clearly in a state of panic. I asked if he was dead and she told me they weren't getting any response from him.

"Within five minutes a lady rang me and said, 'I'm sorry, he's passed away'."

At the time of his death, Mr Howell, a former manager with a sanitary wear firm, was still suffering from symptoms of C-diff and Rotovirus.

Pathologist Dr Mark Stephens, who carried out a post mortem examination, found the cause of death to be a blood clot caused by immobility caused by his health problems including diabetes; and further complicated by the c-diff infection.

Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, Mr Smith said: "You could see the decline in his health, he took knock, after knock after knock.

"Even if he had not had this, I don't think he was long for this world."

Mr Smith added: "His treatment could have been better and I will take up the matter with the nursing authorities."