UK:Care home denies Marine hero MRSA

April 15, 2008
Care home denies Marine hero MRSA

A hospital has denied that a Royal Marine hailed a hero by Prince Harry has contracted the superbug MRSA while in its care.

After flying back from Afghanistan the Prince said he was humbled by Marine Ben McBean who lost an arm and leg after hitting a Taliban mine.

The 21-year-old commando was being treated for his injuries at Selly Oak NHS hospital, Birmingham.

It was reported on Tuesday he has colonised MRSA, which means he is carrying the bug but it is yet to infect his wounds.

He was discharged from Selly Oak last week and the hospital denied he contracted any infection while he was there.

A spokeswoman for the University Hospital Birmingham Foundation Trust said: "Marine McBean has not contracted a hospital-acquired infection whilst a patient at Selly Oak Hospital."

It is understood he is now recovering at the Headley Court Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey.

An unnamed Royal Marine is reported saying Mne McBean is "really down about the infection".

The source told The Sun: "For Ben to survive everything the Taliban threw at him just to end up shafted by his own medical system is sickening."

Mne McBean, from Plymouth, Devon, is the eleventh British serviceman injured in war zones to contract MRSA in the last five years.
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