THE family of a young man who died in hospital following complications arising from an ingrowing toenail still do not know why he died.

The mother of 23-year-old Troy Eames burst into tears when a coroner recorded an open verdict on the football-obsessed Lower Bourne man's death.

Mother Sue, father Robin, family and friends of the popular nursery worker packed Woking coroner's court for an inquest eight months after Troy's death in Frimley Park Hospital last November.

But after more than five hours of complicated and inconclusive medical evidence was heard, coroner Michael Burgess felt unable to say how Troy had died.

"I apologise to the family for not giving you the certainty you would like," he said.

Troy, who was born at Frimley Park Hospital, died there on November 7 after suffering excruciating pain, hallucinations and body temperatures of up to 40 degrees C.

The former pupil of St Polycarp's and All Hallows schools, who lived with his parents in Lodge Hill Road, also had a cardiac arrest.

The inquest heard that Troy was "extrovert and outgoing" and father Robin said he was in "excellent health".

A post mortem revealed he had died from multi-organ failure but the inquest was unable to establish its cause.

Troy had two spells in Frimley with an excruciatingly painful ingrowing toenail and at one point doctors were considering amputating the left big toe, the left leg and even both legs.

The so-called superbug MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus), Troy's allergic reaction to a drug used to treat the MRSA, poor circulation and a previous leg injury were all ruled out by the coroner as probable causes of the tragedy.

Just after Troy's death, his mother Sue told The Herald she thought the MRSA and her son's allergic reaction to the anti-MRSA drug Teicoplanin were to blame.

The inquest heard that MRSA was found in a swab taken from Troy's infected toenail and that he developed a chest rash when on Teicoplanin.

Dr David Gerrard, whose Frimley Park Hospital team Troy was under, said he also suffered "severe headaches and hallucinations, possibly because of the painkillers".

Troy, who had been a nurseryman and had played football for Wrecclesham reserves and enjoyed a spell in Farnham Town's third team, was switched to alternative antibiotics and there was no trace of MRSA in further tests.

On Frimley's MRSA policy, Dr Gerrard said: "As far as we can, we put them into side rooms, but there are so many cases. It's an epidemic. It's not just Frimley Park, it's across all hospitals."

The hospital was implicitly exonerated when its microbiologist Dr Nigel Cumberland said Troy's MRSA was "community acquired", indicating it was less likely to have been caught from being in the hospital. And coroner Michael Burgess found no evidence of negligence. He also ruled out an old football injury and injuries sustained in a car crash in 2000 as "initiating conditions".

"The difficulty here is there is no single starting point leading to a chain of events, just a number of short strands," he said.

The Eames family did not wish to comment.