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Flesh eating bug kills dancer, 45
Salsa teacher Maria was a 'wonderful person'
The family of a popular dance teacher from Luton have spoken of their shock at her death just two days after a routine knee operation.
Maria Garcia, 45, of Coltsfoot Green, taught salsa at Lewsey Community Centre and at Liquid nightclub in Gordon Street, Luton.
Maria, who moved to the UK from Spain 22 years ago, went into the private Spire hospital in Harpenden on Friday, August 13, for keyhole knee surgery.
But on Sunday she arrived at A&E at the Luton & Dunstable Hospital suffering from extreme pain in her leg.
She died later the same night from septic shock caused by the bacteria streptococcus, and the 'flesh-eating' bug necrotising fasciitis.
Yesterday her brother-in-law John Glynn, who has flown from Australia with his wife, Lourdes, said: "We spoke to her on Saturday evening, UK time, to see how she was feeling, and she said she was fine but had a really bad pain in her knee. That was the last time we spoke to her."
At midnight on Sunday, John and Lourdes received a call from Maria's other sister, Gracia, who had come to Luton to spend the weekend with her, to tell them she had died.
"We got the shock of our lives," said Mr Glynn. "Her mother is completely devastated."
He said his sister-in-law was a "wonderful person who cared a great deal about people", and who spoke to her elder brother, Jose Antonio, a paraplegic, for an hour every day over the internet.
The family had been inundated with telephone calls and emails from Maria's friends in Luton, he said, and added that the L&D, where a critical care team had tried desperately to save Maria, had been "absolutely first class".
Maria's funeral is due to take place on Saturday in her home city of Valladolid, in northern Spain, where she will be buried alongside her father.
No-one at the Spire hospital was available for comment.
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Weather for Biggleswade
Sunday 12 February 2012
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