A mother who was almost killed by the hospital superbug MRSA is suing the NHS for £260,000.

Tanya Page, 31, was in a coma for four months with less than a ten per cent chance of survival after going into hospital to have a baby.

She has 70 scars on her body as a result dozens of operations after she contracted the deadly bug at the Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath.

The divorced mother of two, a former child minder, is taking the NHS to court as she has been left unable to work.

But a response from NHS lawyers suggests MRSA is a risk patients take when going to hospital.

Miss Page, of The Drive, Uckfield, will also argue during the case starting next month that her marriage break-up was caused by her five-year battle with the bug.

She was rushed into intensive care at the Princess Royal with pneumonia three weeks after having a caesarean there in February 2000.

Tests showed her body had been invaded by MRSA and she was transferred to London's Royal Brompton Hospital where doctors battled for six months to save her life.

She said: "When I woke up I had no idea I had been unconscious for so long.

"I thought it was the next day and I was still in Haywards Heath. The last time I had seen Jack he was a new-born.

"I was shocked when they presented me with this four-month-old.

"My daughter Hayley would come and visit me in the hospital when I was in a coma and sing me nursery rhymes. She even had her fourth birthday in the hospital room. The nurses put up balloons for her.

"It was really hard for my family. My poor parents had to say goodbye to me three times so it really was touch and go. I had countless operations, and luckily I didn't have to go through the pain.

"But now I have got arthritis and osteoporosis and I can't breathe very well. I used to be able to go to the gym and go for a run but now I get worn out very easily.

"When I came out of hospital I was in a wheelchair and I had to use oxygen but I gradually managed to use them less and less because I hated being stuck in a wheelchair.

"I have got scars all over my body. I have two scars that are about 10in long on each side of my body where they had to take out my lungs and put them back in because they had collapsed. They had to remove some of one lung."

Miss Page, whose children Hayley and Jack are now eight and five, says the pressure and stress of the last few years also led to the breakdown of her marriage and then divorce.

She said: "It was so stressful that I would say this is definitely responsible for the breakdown of my marriage. Everything has changed now.

"The hospital has to know it is responsible for what happened to me. All I know is that I was healthy before I went to the Princess Royal and then I got MRSA. I was not ill when I went in, I was having a baby.

"Obviously I hope I win the court case but you cannot put a price on someone's health.

"The money would help to send my children to university because now I can't work, but I would rather be healthy. I just want to be able to pick up my children and play with them like I used to."

A spokesman for the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Princess Royal Hospital, said: "We can't comment on the case at the moment because legal proceedings are still under way.

"However the Trust takes issues around infection control and cleanliness very seriously and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath has consistently received a top rating for cleanliness in the Government's annual inspections.

"In addition, there are a number of initiatives in place to tackle MRSA including alcohol gel being available at patients' bedsides and hand washing awareness campaigns."