A woman died after contracting a hospital superbug, an inquest heard.

But Sarah Lindsay Sutherland-Beatson, 41, of Whitley Road, Eastbourne, would probably have recovered if she had not neglected herself, a coroner said.

Miss Sutherland-Beatson died at Eastbourne District General Hospital on October 14 last year after collapsing on a ward two weeks earlier with a heart attack.

The Eastbourne inquest heard Miss Sutherland-Beatson had contracted MRSA, the so-called hospital superbug, after she was admitted for a hernia operation on July 15.

While in hospital Miss Sutherland-Beatson, who was clinically obese at around 21st and had behavioural and learning difficulties, also developed a pressure sore on her bottom, the inquest heard.

Nursing staff described her as a difficult and willful patient.

She was discharged on July 23 and allowed home to be cared for by a team of district nurses and her mother.

District nursing sister Tracey Marsden said the patient stopped eating and drinking, developed diarrhoea, was unable to wash herself and continued smoking.

Miss Sutherland-Beatson was re-admitted to hospital as an emergency patient on September 27.

She died of blood poisoning brought on by the infection from the sore.

Coroner Alan Craze recorded a verdict of death from natural causes contributed to by self-neglect.