A father-of-two, died on 8th August 2008, 8 weeks after he stubbed his toe on some coral while on holiday in Florida.

The 59 year old insurance clerk was visiting the “Discovery Cove” water park attraction in Orlando with his family where they were swimming with in a pool with tropical fish. Mr Clarke he stubbed one of his toes on the rocks, which had been implanted with live coral, causing his toes to turn purple. At the age of two Mr. Clarke was diagnosed with haemophilia: a condition that affects the body’s ability to clot blood so that sufferers bleed for longer than normal. However, although his condition was under control and, until this accident, he had been able to lead a normal life, haemophilia would be likely to make him more prone to complications with blood poisoning that Mr. Clarke contracted.

Three days after the accident, June 13th, the family were due to fly home to Sale, Greater Manchester, but Mr. Clarke’s shoulder was in “agonising pain”; his wife, Monica, noticed that it was a “black, morbid” colour and that his back was “awash with purple swirls beneath the skin”. On the way to the airport he was sick and once they had arrived his legs gave way and he collapsed. Mr. Clarke had to be taken off the plane when his nose and lips turned a “white, waxy colour” and was sent to the Central Florida Regional Hospital.

The hospital diagnosed him with septic shock and organ failure treating him in Intensive Care. Mr. Clarke desperately wanted to go home so on 2nd July he was flown by air ambulance to Wythenshawe Hospital where he had to have both his legs amputated below the knee. He was later transferred to Manchester Royal Infirmary where, despite the doctors’ best efforts he died of multiple organ failure caused by Group B streptococcal septicaemia on 8th August 2009.

The coroner at the inquest, Nigel Meadows, who had also coincidently been to the same water park, recorded a verdict of accidental death saying that the “Discovery Cove” water park did “seem the most likely source of infection”. He also commented to Monica Clarke that her husband had been “essentially unlucky” and that “this was an unusual set of circumstances made all the more difficult because it started with a happy family holiday in a safe environment, then to have a relatively trivial injury which led to these complications.”