Bug caught in ‘different hospital’

A WOMAN died at a Dublin hospital from a superbug she “most likely” contracted at another hospital where she previously was a patient, an inquest had heard.

Bridget Frasier, 82, of Lisle Road, Walkinstown, Dublin, died at Tallaght Hospital on February 13, 2007 after contracting the superbug Clostridium Difficile (C Diff,) most likely when she was a patient at St James’s Hospital in January, Dublin County Coroner’s Court heard.

The inquest was just one of four inquests into deaths of patients who contracted hospital acquired infections and subsequently died.

Ms Frasier died from intra-abdominal sepsis due to a likely bowel perforation due to C Diff infection, the court heard.

Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty recorded a verdict of death by hospital acquired infection.

Ms Frasier’s daughter, Breda Hayes, told the court that her mother had injured her foot when she fell out of bed in January and was admitted to St James’s Hospital.

“She went downhill while she was there. They said it was a bug she had picked up — an infection,” she said.

Ms Hayes was then transferred to Kiltipper Care Centre for two weeks, but when her condition deteriorated, she was admitted to Tallaght Hospital on February 11 with acute abdominal pain and diarrhoea, a respiratory tract infection and renal failure.

Upon her admission via A&E, staff anticipated she had an infection and she was immediately treated with antibiotics. She was subsequently diagnosed with C Diff.

Her condition stabilised on the night of February 12 to February 13, but she became critically unwell on February 13 and died that day.

Her cause of death was intra-abdominal sepsis, due to a likely large bowel perforation, due to C Diff colitis, which was most likely picked up while she was a patient at St James’s Hospital, the court heard.

One of the doctors who treated Ms Frasier, Dr Orla Healy, who is based at Cork University Hospital, but was previously at Tallaght, told the court there are two microbiologists at Tallaght Hospital and that a microbiologist is an “essential part of an infection control team”.

Speaking outside the court, Ms Frasier’s daughter criticised the infection management policy at St James’s Hospital and said staff had discharged her mother before she was well enough to leave.

“If the infection matter was managed properly my mother wouldn’t have died when she did,” said Ms Hayes. “They just thought they’d never get her out of the hospital.

“The day they were moving her the bed management in James’s Hospital told me that my mother was taking up an acute medical bed space, that she was well enough to go.”