David Bick was a cancer patient at Torbay Hospital

Trading standards officer David Bick, 53, died in Torbay Hospital last October.

The Legionnaire's disease was the "final straw" when added to Mr Bick's other problems, coroner Hamish Turner said at the inquest in Torquay.

Water sampling was carried out on the system in Turner ward at the hospital, and the coroner said the highest reading for legionella was in room 19, which Mr Bick had used.

Dr Anthony Maggs, a consultant microbiologist at South Devon Health Care Trust, said Turner ward was the only area affected by the disease.

We kept on finding things in the water system which were not right Malcolm Thomas, consultant engineer

Mr Bick, a family man of Lloyd Avenue, Shiphay in Torquay, died from respiratory failure, Legionnaire's disease and high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the coroner said.

Torbay Hospital consultant haematologist Dr Stephen Smith, in charge of Mr Bick's case, said he was being treated for a "very aggressive" but potentially curable tumour.

But the intensive chemotherapy left him prone to a wide variety of infections.

Mr Bick was responding well to treatment, but if he reached remission, there was a "significant chance" of later relapse.

The Trust's head of estates, Simon Allen, told the inquest that after Mr Bick's death, the water system in Turner ward was flushed and dismantled, and jointing compound and large amounts of flux was found.

Consultant engineer Malcolm Thomas, called in by the Trust to work on the water system after the outbreak, said he had to take "extreme measures" to get the system up to a reasonable standard.

"We kept on finding things which were not right," he said.

The inquest continues.