Flesh-eating bug victim entitled to £1m payout

A father who lost a leg and fingers to a flesh-eating bug after he was “lost in the system” at a busy NHS hospital has won the right to more than £1million in damages.

A judge condemned a series of “system failures” at Mayday Hospital, Croydon, after Ibiyinka Macaulay, 58, was left waiting in agony in Accident & Emergency for six hours without anyone taking blood samples. He eventually walked out, thinking he needed no further treatment, but deteriorated and the following night had to undergo life-saving surgery.

The father-of-three, from Croydon, had contracted the flesh-eating bug necrotising fasciitis in his pelvis.