Hospital criticised in MRSA death

A FAMILY criticised a hospital’s infection control policies yesterday during the inquest into the MRSA-related death of their mother.

Sorcha Sexton told Cork Coroner’s Court that she had to threaten the city’s South Infirmary Hospital with legal action before it isolated her 70-year-old mother Joan Cronin after she tested positive for the deadly superbug infection on November 19, 2006, several weeks after admission.

Mrs Cronin, from Upper Dublin Hill in Cork, died in the hospital on November 24, from MRSA-related pneumonia.

Ms Sexton, 29, said her mother was independent and lively and was very active before going in to hospital.

“She was a young 70-year-old,” she said.

“But she deteriorated over the weeks. She became an old woman before our eyes. She couldn’t walk, feed herself and she had breathing problems.”

Mrs Cronin presented at the hospital’s A&E unit on October 4, 2006, complaining of shoulder and hip pains and was admitted the following day for treatment for suspected polymyalgia rheumatica — a type of arthritis that affects the muscles.

Rheumatologist Dr Mark Phelan said further tests led him to believe she had polymyocitis — a chronic inflammatory disease of muscle

He put her on a course of steroids, which suppressed her immune system.

MRSA swabs were taken over the following weeks. Some tested positive for MRSA colonisation but a swab taken on November 19, a Sunday, tested positive for infection.

Ms Sexton said the family was never told their mother had MRSA.

“A nurse said it in passing to our mother who in turn mentioned it to us,” she said.

Mrs Cronin died at about 6.30am on November 24.

Dr Phelan told the inquest the hospital’s infection control policy was in “a state of flux” at the moment but that despite continuing national debate, it is pressing ahead with plans to screen all admissions for MRSA.

Assistant state pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, said an autopsy on Mrs Cronin’s body showed a number of infections, including MRSA.

The cause of death was bilateral bronchial pneumonia, which was a direct result of the combination of MRSA and other E-coli present in her system, she said.

Coroner Philip Comyn said he was torn between recording a verdict of death due to natural causes or an MRSA-related death and after some deliberation he recorded an open verdict.

The family’s legal team welcomed the verdict but family members declined to comment.