Mayo General Hospital has been strongly criticised at an inquest for its failure to implement hospital policy when an elderly female patient, who later died, was found to have been infected by the MRSA super bug.
John O'Dwyer, coroner for south Mayo, recorded a verdict at an inquest in Castlebar, Co Mayo, yesterday that Sabina Keane (87), originally from Belmullet, died from an MRSA infection at Mayo General Hospital on January 1st.
A death certificate issued by the hospital afterwards said she died from methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pneumonia as a consequence of chronic renal failure.
The coroner was critical of the fact that after Ms Keane was tested and found to have the bug on December 22nd, the hospital policy on control and prevention of the bug was not put in place.
She was not isolated and she remained in a ward with five other people.
Mr O'Dwyer said the matter only came to light when Ms Keane's daughter went to register her mother's death in Dublin. The registrar contacted the coroner on February 16th.
Dr Fionnuala Lavin, consultant physician in general medicine and cardiology, gave evidence that Ms Keane had been a patient of hers since 2003.
She had a number of subsequent admissions up to 2006. She had multiple medical problems with a history of asthma, hypertension, hiatus hernia, previous appendicectomy and previous surgery for an obstructed femoral hernia.
The primary cause of death, in her opinion, was acute pulmonary oedema presumably secondary to underlying ischaemic heart disease and moderate aortic stenosis.
Other factors were her MRSA chest infection and established chronic renal failure. She said it was her opinion Ms Keane would have died regardless of whether she had MRSA or not as her death was imminent.
Mr O'Dwyer said he was very dissatisfied with the fact he was not notified of the woman's death and the reason for her death last January. It was most unfortunate that this had happened. The conflict would not have arisen as a postmortem would have been requested which would have given the cause of death.
Majella Keane gave a report on the days leading to the death of her mother.
She said she was admitted to the hospital on December 13th after experiencing breathing difficulties. She was treated for a chest and kidney infection. The following day she was given a bed in a ward.
Over the next few days, her mother began to improve having been given antibiotics. However, on December 22nd, she was informed by a nurse that a sample of her sputum showed the presence of MRSA. By December 24th, she noticed a decline in her mother and her voice was weaker.
On December 29th, she was told that her mother's kidney function appeared to be failing. She and her sister inquired about the possibility of moving their mother to a single room but were told that none was available. At 4am on January 1st, she received a call to say her mother had passed away.
Dr Lavin gave evidence that Ms Keane was admitted to Mayo General Hospital on November 21st, 2005 with low haemoglobin. She was treated for a number of conditions and was released.
However, after she was transferred back to her nursing home, results of a screen taken on the day of admission showed that she had evidence of MRSA in her nasal swab and the home was notified of this.
Dr Lavin said she was off duty for Christmas at the time of Ms Keane's death. When asked why she was not isolated, Dr Lavin responded that she presumed staff endeavoured to find the patient a single room but that none was available.