MRSA added to horror of burn victim

A MAN who was set on fire during a savage attack by burglars had to endure further horror when he contracted MRSA while being treated in hospital for his burns.

Ian Colquhoun, 27, recalled the nightmare after finally being declared fit enough to receive new prosthetic limbs, three years after his ordeal began.

Ian, who is from Scotland, was working in Ireland in 2002. He suffered terrible burns to his legs and arms when he woke up after a party in Dundalk to find two men apparently stealing the television.

They beat him unconscious and when he came to in a Dublin hospital seven weeks later, gardaí told him he had been rescued from the blazing house.

Ian first had to get over the shock of finding out his legs had been amputated but worse was to follow when he was transferred home to his local hospital in Livingston.

The day after he arrived, he was diagnosed with MRSA and ended up being treated in isolation for nine months in two different hospitals.

Just when he was making progress in his rehabilitation, one of his leg wounds reopened during physiotherapy and he was referred back to Livingstone for surgery.

But the hospital was afraid he was still carrying the MRSA bug and he was confined to home for a further 16 months before he got the all-clear to have his operation.

Ian now lives in a specially adapted council house in Edinburgh’s Cameron Toll area and is rebuilding his life and learning to walk again on his new limbs.

He suffered another blow when his claim for criminal injuries compensation was turned down because gardaí have not yet got a conviction in his case.

He told his local newspaper: “I have only been able to get through it all because my family and friends have been so amazing.”