An inquest into the death of former Arsenal star Kevin Campbell has said a delay in the diagnosis of a rare heart infection “did not more than minimally contribute” to his death.
The former Gunners, Nottingham Forest and Everton striker died at Manchester Royal Infirmary on June 15 last year and a provisional cause of death was given as multi-organ failure due to infective endocarditis. Mr Campbell was said to be fit and well until around January 2024 when he was first admitted to MRI for seven weeks.
The inquest at Manchester coroners’ court heard that tests showed he was suffering from severe heart and kidney failure but following treatment, including dialysis, he was deemed healthy enough to be discharged. Mr Campbell lost weight during his hospital stay from 124kg to 98kg but it had plummeted to just 59kg when he was readmitted two months later on May 17.
Area Coroner for Manchester, Zak Golombek, said Mr Campbell was “very unwell” at that stage and medics felt there was some continuation of the heart and kidney failure, with signs of an infection of unknown cause.
His condition continued to deteriorate as further investigations and tests in early June confirmed a diagnosis of infective endocarditis. Medical treatment then continued until his death from multi-organ failure.
An internal investigation by the hospital accepted the infection – caused by bacteria entering the blood and travelling to the heart – could have been diagnosed earlier and that “more curiosity” should have been shown by clinicians over Mr Campbell’s significant weight loss.
It was described during the hearing as a “missed opportunity” but the inquest was also told that Mr Campbell would “almost certainly” not been been fit enough to undertake “high risk” open-heart surgery if the infection had been detected earlier during his final admission.
The inquest heard there was no evidence the infection – said to be “difficult” to identify – was present during his first hospital admission or at a follow-up outpatient appointment with a cardiologist on April 26.
Recording a conclusion of death by natural causes, Mr Golombek said: “While it is my finding that there was delay in diagnosing infected endocarditis during that second admission to hospital, it also my finding that the delay did not more than minimally contribute to Kevin’s death on the balance of probabilities.
“Kevin died from a naturally occurring illness which very sadly on June 15 reached its natural end.”
Giving evidence, MRI consultant Dr Robert Henney said: “Unfortunately he had two completely separate and unrelated insults to his heart in a short space of time, so he was desperately unlucky.”
No family members were present at Manchester Coroner’s Court but Mr Campbell’s brother, Harold, and sister, Lorna, followed the proceedings remotely.
Harold Campbell told the hearing that his brother was the family “superstar”. He said: “Kevin was very loved as a football professional, in the media and especially by the fans of the clubs he played for. He was very, very loved by everyone.
“From a family point of view, he was our superstar from his start in football at 13 years old. Everyone loved him, not only as a professional footballer but as a normal person. His football career was successful but after his retirement, I think everyone sort of got more in tune with his personality – a normal person and he was very, very loved.”
Campbell won the 1990-91 league title, an FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup at Arsenal and scored 59 goals in 224 appearances. He played for Forest for three years and followed up with six seasons at Goodison Park, captaining the Toffees, before also having spells at West Brom and Cardiff.
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