C-diff is also notable for being responsible for many of the battlefield amputations in the Civil War. It causes gas-gangrene, expanding tissues with gas generated as the bacterium colonizes tissues. Nasty.
Hard to understand how C-diff persists in surgical units.
I got the impression from the article that the c. dificile bacterium exist naturally in the stomachs of healthy adults and that it is kept in check by other naturally occurring “friendly” bacteria in our digestive tracts. So it looks like he already had the c. dificile in him (i.e., he did not have to “catch” it from the outside).
The problem/issue is that the antibiotics he was prescribed to kill the suspected infection also killed the friendly bacteria allowing c. dificile to grow unchecked and kill him.
Based on what you wrote, it must have been a terrible death. No way for a hero to die.