Shrewsbury pensioner died of MRSA after heart surgery
A Shrewsbury pensioner died after contracting hospital superbug MRSA while recovering from a potentially life-saving operation, an inquest has heard.
Iris Elizabeth Owen Tiffen, 83, died on May 17 after having been treated in the intensive treatment unit at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford for five weeks. Telford coroner Mr John Ellery held the inquest.
Mr Ellery heard that Miss Tiffen, from Hamilton Road, Shrewsbury, had undergone a life-saving operation at the University Hospital
Staffordshire to replace a heart valve, but contracted the superbug while recovering from the surgery.
She was transferred to the intensive treatment unit at the Princess Royal Hospital, but died within a few weeks.
Mr Ellery recorded a verdict of death as a result of a post-operative infection.
Heart surgeon Mr Adrian Levine said that he had spoken with Miss Tiffen before the operation and told her that there was a three per cent chance that she could die as a result of the procedure.
But he also said that had Miss Tiffen not had the operation, she would have had just a 20 per cent chance of surviving the next year, and would have died of heart failure within two years.
The inquest at Wellington Register Office heard that MRSA is a common infection, but that a healthy adult would be able to shake it off quickly with the help of antibiotics.
Mr Levine said: "Miss Tiffen had had a heart operation, had been on the intensive treatment unit for a fair amount of time, and was debilitated.
"At that point she was more likely to become seriously unwell as a result of the MRSA than a young healthy person."
