NHS hotline missed fatal flesh-eating bug

A GARDENER died from a flesh-eating bug after an NHS hotline failed to recognise he needed to be sent to hospital for emergency treatment, a coroner has ruled.

Peter Oliver rang NHS 111, a non-emergency number, reporting leg pain, redness and a loss of mobility after an insect bite. The call handlers advised the 57-year-old from Muswell Hill, north London, to contact his GP within 12 hours, St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard.

When his symptoms worsened, he went to the nearby Whittington Hospital, where he was diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis, a “flesh eating disease.” Despite amput-- ing his leg, surgeons were unable to save Mr Oliver, who died on Sept 15.

Dr Richard Brittain, the assistant coroner, recorded a conclusion of death from natural causes.