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UK: A heartbroken husband watched his wife die just days after she caught an infection from a dirty hospital room.
Eileen Dee was being treated for cancer and was given a good prognosis before she caught the bug.
Traces of drug-resistant bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa were found in water running from the tap and in the shower drain in her room, along with several others on the ward.
Concerned for her health, doctors transferred Eileen, 68, from the Royal Sussex County Hospital. But there were no notes explaining she had been exposed to the potentially lethal infection.
Five days later, the retired NHS information manager was dead.
Measures including a thorough review of cleaning rounds were put in place at the Royal Sussex after an outbreak of the same infection in 2010.
But an internal Serious Incident Investigation found only about a third of hospital housekeepers were cleaning to the required standard when Eileen died.
Her widower, retired chief executive Rene, 69, said: “It was such a shock.
“One minute everyone was telling her how well she was doing and the next moment I am watching her struggling to breathe. It happened so quickly.”
Eileen was diagnosed with acute myloid leukaemia and initially, after watching her mother die from cancer, opted for palliative care. But, relatively healthy and with a good predicted response, she decided to go into hospital for chemotherapy.
Rene, from Brighton, said: “She was very scared about going through the process of what her mother went through, which was very long, drawn-out and unpleasant.
“They were just about to introduce her to another lady, of a similar age, who had been through the same condition and had successfully come out the other side.
“That was just about to happen and then suddenly she was gone.
“Eileen has missed out on the prospect of being a grandmother, which is something she would have loved. One of the most difficult decisions I have had to make was when to get my son, Matthew, home from overseas. But by the time I was very, very sure he should, and phoned him to say ‘get over here now’, it was too late.”
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common bacteria which rarely affects healthy people. But it has become a major cause of healthcare-related infections, particularly in those, like Eileen, with compromised immune systems.
Eileen died in August 2013. Her cause of death was recorded as pneumonia but the Royal Sussex’s report says the coroner should have been made aware of the infection.
Rene is now suing the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust for clinical negligence.
Melanie Minter, of Sussex law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter, said: “We say there were serious errors and gross negligence in respect of cleaning the haematology oncology unit.”
Last month, the Trust pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of putting patients at risk over a period of more than six years in relation to a separate outbreak of legionella – the bacteria which causes legionnaires’ disease – that killed one woman.
A spokesman said the Trust could not comment on Eileen’s case while legal proceedings were ongoing.
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