A
man who may have been bitten by an insect while he was on holiday
died a week after returning home, a coroner's court has heard.
Dr Matthew Kernot, 36, from Balham, south London, contracted
septicaemia in India in November 2005 and died from multiple organ
failure on his return.
Blood tests taken after his return had not shown anything was
wrong.
Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, the coroner said
it was an unusual and tragic case.
Dr Kernot had been away with his girlfriend Christina Devaney and
started developing symptoms - a headache and loss of apetite - while
they were on holiday.
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The rapid deterioration and death of this man is very
unusual, the story is unusual and the outcome is a tragedy

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But the day after they got back to the UK, he was feeling well
enough to go out for dinner to celebrate their anniversary, the
coroner's court heard.
The following day Dr Kernot, a financial analyst, had developed a
fever and went to his GP. But blood tests did not show anything was
wrong.
By the weekend he appeared to be improving and he told his
girlfriend she should go on a pre-arranged trip on the Saturday
night, but Dr Kernot's condition quickly deteriorated while she was
away.
Ms Devaney called for an ambulance on the train home, but by the
time she arrived home, Dr Kernot was dead. A post-mortem examination
showed he did not have any tropical disease.
The coroner, Dr Paul Knapman, said: "The rapid deterioration and
death of this man is very unusual, the story is unusual and the
outcome is a tragedy.
"At some stage, probably in India, he had a bite and whether the
creature that bit him injected some bacteria or either by
scratching, bacteria got in at some stage, bacteria has got into his
bloodstream."
He said Dr Kernot then developed septicaemia which caused his
liver, kidney, spleen and heart to fail.