EDINBURGH A great-grandmother who contracted the MRSA superbug in hospital is suing NHS Greater Glasgow for £30,000, in a move that could pave the way for hundreds of other sufferers to claim millions of pounds in damages.

Legal arguments began yesterday at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, where a judge is to decide whether the case brought by Elizabeth Miller, 71, should proceed to a full hearing.

Mrs Miller, who was not in court, told The Times last night that her life had been devastated by weakness and breathlessness since she acquired the infection after a heart operation in the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, in 2001. The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Britain. Mrs Miller, from Kilsyth, near Glasgow, had MRSA diagnosed nine days after an operation to replace her aortic valve. Her legal team blames the infection on staff not washing their hands, a lack of soap and paper towels and faulty sinks and taps at the hospital. They say that a nasal swab taken from their client proves that she did not have MRSA before her operation.

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