Flesh-eating superbug killed father in just four hours as coroner warns of 'new horror'

Britain is facing ‘a new horror’ from a flesh eating superbug which killed a father just within four hours of him arriving in hospital with leg pains. Richard Johnson, 54, had been given painkillers for what doctors thought was arthritis. But when it was realised that he had the infection necrotising fasciitis surgeons amputated his left leg in a bid to save him.

They then watched in horror as black areas spread to his abdomen while they were operating, an inquest heard. Mr Johnson, a shop manager from Crediton, Devon, died just a week after he complained of a sore throat. A coroner has urged family doctors to be given more information necrotising fasciitis as a result of the case. The disease, which is becoming more common, is an infection which sweeps through the body, internally and externally, so quickly that it can actually be seen spreading.