Ken Russell contracts MRSA bug

Film director Ken Russell has contracted the MRSA superbug.

Russell, 77, was quarantined after doctors discovered he had the infection while he was being treated in hospital for a back problem.

His wife Elise, 52, said she feared for her husband's life.

Russell had been filming at his home in East Boldre, Hampshire, when he started suffering back pains.

His wife took him to Southampton General Hospital on 4 August but he was discharged after doctors could find nothing wrong. He returned two days later with the same symptoms and was admitted for tests.

He subsequently asked to be transfer red to BUPA's Southampton Hospital, which required an MRSA test. This came back positive.

Russell, who directed Women In Love, Tommy and Altered States, said his illness left him unable to walk and caused him to slip in and out of consciousness. At one point he was taking nine drugs, including morphine and Valium.

He said: "The worst thing was that I didn't know what was wrong with me. There seemed to be no improvement in my condition and the pain just got worse and worse."

Mrs Russell said: "I could see that overnight an active, vital, brilliant, spirited person was in the process of losing his ability to walk, talk, speak coherently and want to live."

Russell has since been given the all-clear and is recovering at a private nursing home in the New Forest.

Earl ier this summer, Southampton General closed its intensive care cardiac ward after at least five people contracted MRSA. However, Russell may have had the bug before being admitted.

A hospital spokesman said combating MRSA was a priority, adding: "We have one of the lower rates in the country."