Thursday, 10 January 2008

Kathy Burke: I caught superbug in hospital

Comedy star Kathy almost died after contracting Clostridium difficile

Gimme Gimme Gimme star Kathy Burke caught a deadly stomach superbug in a London hospital.

The comedy actress, 43 – who played oddball character Linda La Hughes in the BBC series – says she contracted Clostridium difficile last year.

'I got quite ill with loads of stuff,' she explains. 'It all happened at once, really. I had three near-death experiences [but] I didn't see any white light or nuns or anything.

'I had that C.difficile hospital bug that everyone is going on about. There's not much they can do. They just let you get on with it. It's a breakdown of the whole immune system.'

Kathy had been admitted for an operation to sort out abdominal problems and a glandular condition when she picked up the bug. C.difficile is the most significant cause of pseudomembranous colitis, a severe infection of the colon.

'To be fair to the NHS, I did catch it because something else was seriously wrong with me that nobody knew about,' she told Mark Lamar and Jo Brand on Jonathan Ross's Radio 2 show.

'My adrenal glands were packing in. Once they opened me up and operated on me, I was susceptible to lots of other things.'

Kathy says she had to take nearly a year off work to recover and lost around 2st.

'I have to say I was very well looked after,' she added. 'I had a brilliant doctor.'

See Kathy Burke as Linda La Hughes in BBC comedy show Gimme Gimme Gimme in this video…