Florrie Field was fit and active until she went into hospital

Florrie Field, 86, died in May from clostridium difficile (C. diff), which her daughter Brenda Charlton claims she contracted at Maidstone Hospital.

The hospital has already admitted that five patients died from an outbreak of the superbug between April and June.

It said Mrs Field was not one of the five known deaths but it would take Mrs Charlton's claims extremely seriously.

Glaucoma operation

Mrs Field lived with her daughter and son-in-law Tony in Mayfield, East Sussex.

She was fit and working in Mrs Charlton's fashion shop until she was admitted to Maidstone Hospital in March for treatment for an eye infection following a glaucoma operation.

After her return home she was suffering from diarrhoea, which her GP diagnosed two weeks later as C. diff.

Brenda Charlton said she wishes her mother had not been admitted

Mrs Charlton and her husband claim this was contracted in the hospital.

"We believe that a patient in the next bed either was suffering or had suffered from C.diff and should have been isolated," Mrs Charlton said.

"I now very much regret agreeing to my mother's admission to Maidstone."

Mrs Field died on 27 May at the Kent and Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells after collapsing at home.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said on Friday that C.diff was the definite cause of death of five patients.

A further 14 patients who died had contracted C. diff but it was a contributory factor and not the main cause of death.

In total 130 people had been infected.

Official complaint

It said the infection had now been brought under control by measures including stricter handwashing, additional hospital cleaning and dedicated wards for those infected.

Mr and Mrs Charlton said they would lodge an official complaint about Mrs Field's treatment at Maidstone Hospital.

A spokesman for the trust said: "Mrs Field is not one of the five patients known to have died during this outbreak.

"If Mr and Mrs Charlton are to lodge a complaint with us we will take it extremely seriously, look into their claims and give them a full response in due course.