London (PTI): Even as an inquest this week ruled that a 39-year-old NRI civil servant died of natural causes, her family claimed she died after contracting an infection at a hospital in Leicester, where she was being treated.

Shakuntala Pancholi had contracted the infection after a routine surgery. She was admitted to hospital but died from multi-organ failure 16 days later.

Her husband, Suresh, 51, said: "She went into hospital with an ear infection, which is not life-threatening and then suddenly she was in a critical condition."

The inquest heard that Pancholi was admitted to Leicester Royal Infirmary in September 2004 suffering from an ear infection caught after an operation to repair a perforated eardrum.

She was later detected with MRSA, a difficult-to treat bacterial disease, and was administered antibiotics. She was discharged after a week but her condition deteriorated and was admitted to Leicester General Hospital, where she died four days later.

Martin Symington, the Leicester coroner, recorded a verdict of death by natural causes after a post-mortem examination found Pancholi died from multi-organ failure caused by an infection.

A spokesman for University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said, there were "lessons that we must learn from this and things we need to do to make sure this does not happen again. Our thoughts are with Mrs Pancholi's family."

As many as 1,087 cases of MRSA bloodstream infections were reported in the UK between October and December last year, as against 1080 in the previous quarter.