EXCLUSIVE: A SON whose frail mother was one of seven victims of a deadly pneumonia infection which swept through a care home was kept in the dark about the outbreak.

Derek Sheppard's mother Phyllis, 88, died after she caught the pneumonia infection affecting 18 residents at Greengates Care Home in Redland Lane, Westbury.

All staff and residents at Greengates were prescribed antibiotics, the home was closed to visitors, and the Health Protection Agency was called in to investigate.

Eighteen of the 44 residents have suffered respiratory problems since February 1, and 11 were admitted to hospital. Two have died within the past week. Among the victims were 91-year-old Edwin Spackman from Westwood, pensioner Albert Nash from Westbury and a man who died on his 90th birthday. Three remain in hospital.

The care home was given the all clear by the Health Protection Agency on Wednesday afternoon and has been reopened to relatives and visitors.

Speaking to the Wiltshire Times this week, Mr Sheppard, 66, said he was never told about the bacterial outbreak by staff at Greengates, whose managers Siam and Diana Yeoh have been away on holiday.

He said: "The only time I was contacted was on February 9.

I came home from work at 5.30pm and there was a message on my phone from Greengates, saying they had had to call the doctor to my mother that morning because she had a chest infection.

"I thought I would have a quick cup of tea and get the dinner on and then call to see how she was.

"But at 6pm the phone went and it was Greengates saying they were sorry to say my mother had died.

"That was all I was told. Nothing was really explained to me at all. I thought she had just caught a chest infection. I fully appreciate the elderly are very vulnerable but it's just a fact of why wasn't I notified?"

When Mr Sheppard, of Leigh Road, went to his mother's funeral at West Wiltshire Crematorium in Semington on Friday, nine days after her death, he still knew nothing about the pneumococcus outbreak and only found out about it when he read a newspaper the next day. Mr Sheppard said he was surprised because he had never before had a cause for complaint about Greengates where his mother, who was suffering from dementia, was a resident for five years.

The pensioner, who used to work at Matravers School, Westbury, leaves two other sons, Alan and Paul, as well as seven grandchildren.

Westbury mayor Horace Prickett said his reaction to the news of the outbreak was disbelief.

"I was absolutely horrified at what I heard and the very sadness that the people who had entrusted their family to the home must have felt," he said.

"My heart went out to them and my condolences are with them."

Care home deputy manager Beryl Naish said: "It's sad when we lose people because most of our residents have been with us a long time. We do our best we can for them and make their lives as happy as we can."

She said relatives were always told when residents fell ill but said they had not necessarily been told about the outbreak.

A spokesman for the Health Protection Agency South West said deadly outbreaks of the pneumococcus bacteria were rare but he said there was no possibility of the care home being at fault.

Pneumococcal disease is an acute bacterial infection. Symptoms include sudden onset of shaking chills, pain in the chest and breathing problems. It affects about eight per 100,000 people.