A retired potter died 18 days after swallowing mouthfuls of floodwater polluted with sewage as he tried to recover items from his home, an inquest was told yesterday.

Edward Hopkins was rescued by firefighters as he clung to a sewage pipe, having been swept off his feet during last summer’s floods. He died in hospital 18 days later from septicaemia and multiple organ failure.

Mr Hopkins, 66, had returned to his home in Sedgeberrow near Evesham, Worcestershire, to collect papers as floodwaters rose around it on July 20 last year. He was in the property when a nearby brook overflowed and a torrent swept through the house.

His wife, Veronica, told the hearing in Gloucester that when he entered the property at 3pm it was dry and free from water. But within 45 minutes the flood was 1.5m (5ft) deep and the road beside their house had turned into a river.

She said: “My husband was recovering documents from the kitchen and we thought we had ten minutes until the brook broke its banks. The waters met in our lounge. There was a whoosh of water and a geyser effect. There was a crashing from the kitchen as water dislodged pots, pans and moved furniture.” Furniture blocked Mr Hopkins’s escape. “I was really frightened that he was going to drown. I kept shouting but there was no response,” his wife said.

Mr Hopkins managed to escape through a window and grabbed the guttering, which then broke, plunging him into the excrement-polluted water. He went under several times but got hold of the waste pipe to which he clung for 2½ hours before a fire crew reached him in a rescue boat.

Alan Crickmore, the Gloucester-shire Coroner, praised the actions of David Blinston, a firefighter who risked infection himself by swimming through the flood to Mr Hopkins.

Mr Blinston said: “I was wearing a floating suit. I left the boat and approached him. I spoke to him but he didn’t appear to understand. I managed to make him understand that my suit would keep both of us afloat. I supported him under his armpits. We lifted him into the boat with help from a neighbour.”

The father of two was airlifted to hospital for a check-up but was discharged the next day. On August 5 he began feeling unwell, complaining of pain in his legs and a heartburn-like pain in the chest. He was taken back to hospital by ambulance.

Although he could walk only with the aid of crutches, doctors discharged him again later that day. On August 7, Mrs Hopkins took him to their GP as he appeared jaundiced and he was then readmitted to Cheltenham General Hospital, where he died that afternoon.

Keith McCarthy, a pathologist, told the hearing that the cause of death was multiple organ failure brought on by septicaemia, caused by a virus contracted from floodwater.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Crickmore described the floodwater as being full of “bugs, dirt and filth”.

He said: “July 20 is a date burnt into the memories of all those people affected by the floods. The evidence of Mrs Hopkins gives a clear first-hand account of the way in which people were taken by surprise. I am satisfied that he died of multi-organ failure due to septicaemia, and I’m satisfied that that was caused by a viral infection he caught as a result of ingesting floodwater.”

The coroner added: “Floodwaters carry with them all sorts of toxic elements – it passed through fields where animals were grazing and defecating and came up through sewers and drains. It is hardly surprising that people who swallow water like that are placed at risk.”

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