'Bruises' grew and killed dad; INQUEST: City medics helpless to stop rapid flesh-eating bug.

Byline: By Will Oliphant

A HEALTHY Birmingham delivery driver was killed by a horrifying rare flesheating bug which can literally dissolve skin in front of your eyes.

Delivery driver Tony Hall, aged 61, of Bloomsbury Walk, Nechells, thought he had strained a muscle in his shoulder, but an inquest heard he had actually been infected with necrotising fasciitis.

Despite visits from paramedics and a family doctor, who prescribed pain killers, no-one knew what was causing Mr Hall's severe pain on October 2 and he refused to go to hospital.

Mr Hall was rushed to Heartlands Hospital two days later when he developed dark bruises all over one side of his body.

His partner, Michele Witherington, aged 40, told Birmingham's assistant deputy coroner, Sally Scanlon: "Doctors came to A&E because the bruise was aggressively growing. He went straight to theatre after that."

That was the last time Michele got to see her partner of 22 years awake. The family's GP, Dr Iftekhar Majeed told the inquest that the hard-to-diagnose disease was extremely aggressive.

"If you draw a line around an infected area, the bruising will sometimes have moved outside of the marked area within half an hour. Sometimes surgeons will see that while they are cutting out infected flesh, nearby areas of healthy flesh have already become infected.

"It can literally dissolve in front of your eyes."

Ms Scanlon recorded a verdict that Mr Hall died of natural causes.

CAPTION(S):

SORE SHOULDER... victim Tony Hall.