A MAN who was making good progress following bowel surgery at a Dublin hospital deteriorated rapidly after contracting the hospital-acquired infection MRSA septicaemia which spread to his heart and caused his death, an inquest has heard.
Thomas Barrett (56), Woodhazel Terrace, Ballymun, Dublin, was admitted to the Mater hospital on November 30th, 2007, for emergency surgery after doctors found he had a twisted bowel.
Mr Barrett did extremely well following surgery and by January 4th, doctors were making plans for further bowel surgery to fully repair his bowel at the end of the month, an inquest at Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.
Routine screens on January 7th, 2008, revealed that he had MRSA septicaemia. Mr Barrett, who suffered from acute pancreatitis and emphysema, began antibiotic treatment on January 8th once there was an indication of the condition.
He suffered a sudden heart attack that day and was transferred to ICU, where he died following a further heart attack on January 14th.
A postmortem found Mr Barrett died of MRSA septicaemia with multiple abscesses in the wall of his heart and infection of the sac around the heart (pericardial sac). The inquest heard that Mr Barrett was screened following his admission to the Mater and the screen was negative for colonisation with MRSA.
“It is clear enough this was a hospital-acquired infection because the patient was screened negative on admission and subsequently developed MRSA,” said coroner Dr Brian Farrell. “It fits the case definition of a hospital-acquired infection.”
The coroner said he was in a position to record the cause of Mr Barrett’s death as complications of MRSA septicaemia with a verdict of a healthcare-acquired infection.
However, he adjourned the inquest following an application from John Nolan, counsel for the Barrett family, who said he wanted further information as to why there was a record in the medical notes of a screening being taken on January 5th but no results recorded.
Mr Nolan said had there been a “sinister” result, treatment may have been needed to be started sooner.
Following a phone call to the hospital, Asim Sheikh, counsel for the hospital, said the samples may have been taken but were not processed and not reported. “The lab have no record of any sample received.”
Earlier, consultant surgeon Maurice Stokes said if there had been a positive test on January 5th, medication would have been started. He would contact the hospital to see if there was further information on the matter as he did not want the family to leave the inquest with unanswered questions.