A second person died from Legionnaires' Disease in an Irish hospital earlier this month, it emerged yesterday. The patient, a man who was being treated at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, died on April 17th, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent.
Confirmation of his death came a day after the South Eastern Health Board said a woman died from the disease at Waterford Regional Hospital on Sunday. The woman, a mother of seven, picked up the infection in the hospital while being treated for an underlying chronic medical condition.
A second inquiry into how she picked up the disease in hospital was announced yesterday by the health board. It will be an indepdent inquiry and will coincide with a hospital inquiry which has already begun.
The Eastern Regional Health Authority emphasised, however, that the man in his 60s who died at Beaumont Hospital had not acquired his infection in hospital.
The man was admitted to Tallaght Hospital on March 15th, transferred to the intensive care unit of James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown, on March 18th and to Beaumont Hospital on March 23rd after he suffered kidney failure. "The infection was acquired in the community. It was an isolated case and there have been no other cases," an ERHA spokeswoman said.
She said that the case, reported in The Irish Times shortly after the patient was admitted to hospital, was investigated at the time by public health doctors, but given they were now on strike, she had not been able to establish how exactly the patient became infected.
The National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC) had also been informed.
However, it was claimed last night that the NDSC was not immediately informed when Ms Ena Kiely, who died at Waterford Regional Hospital, was diagnosed with the disease.
A health board spokeswoman said Ms Kiely was diagnosed on Easter Monday, April 21st, and the strike committee of the Irish Medical Organisation was informed the next day. She added that the Department of Health's incident room was also informed on April 22nd. Asked why the NDSC was not informed, she said she could not comment further as an inquiry was ongoing.
A spokeswoman for the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, who has asked for a full report from the SEHB on the case, said he welcomed the independent review.
Ms Kiely, whose husband, Eamonn, is a GP in Kilmacthomas, was laid to rest yesterday. The chief executive officer of the SEHB, Mr Pat McLoughlin, said the terms of reference of the independent investigation into the incident and its findings would be published in due course.
"The SEHB will comply with any recommendations made," he added.
Ms Kiely is believed to have picked up the disease from water droplets in an en suite bathroom adjacent to her private room at Waterford Regional Hospital. S
The results of tests on water samples in the en suite, which has been cordoned off, are awaited.
"The normal time frame for preliminary results is a 10-day period," Mr McLoughlin said.
He said the board was satisfied there was and is no immediate danger to other patients, staff or visitors in the hospital.
Furthermore he said the woman's death was "tragic" for the patient and her family and he extended his sympathy to them on behalf of the health board.