Family anger as Legionnaires' victim fights for life

News Reporter

Wednesday 27 June 2012

A grandmother is fighting for her life after being struck down with Legionnaires' Disease and airlifted to a hospital 300 miles away for emergency treatment.

anne BENNETT: Airlifted to a hospital in Leicester.

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Helen McArdle

Anne Bennett, 60, of Edinburgh, was flown by air ambulance to Leicester Royal Infirmary early yesterday to receive specialist care after her organs began failing.

Mrs Bennett – who lived in Gorgie Road in the heart of the outbreak zone for the disease that has claimed two lives in the capital – was placed in a medically-induced coma to improve her chances of recovery. The hospital was chosen for its advanced facilities for accommodating critically ill patients with induced coma.

She lives 200 yards from the North British Distillery – one of the suspected sources of the Legionnaires' outbreak. The infection is transmitted by breathing in water vapour contaminated with the legionella bacteria. Mrs Bennett first began showing symptoms of the disease last week, but her condition deteriorated over the weekend. Her family has told how she could barely hold a glass of water and was suffering hallucinations and extreme disorientation by the time she was admitted to hospital. Mrs Bennett's daughter, Leanne Rae, 35, said her mother did not believe she had been at risk of the infection because she had been on holiday with her husband, Frank, for around 10 days at the time when victims were believed to have been exposed.The first case was identified on May 31 and outbreak control operations were launched three days later, after a fourth case emerged. Ms Rae added that the couple had not received any leaflets about the health scare on their return. She said: "I think these leaflets should have been sent out. My dad says there's a seven-day incubation period so they should have been made aware there's still a problem."Ms Rae added: "Somebody has to pay. No-one's saying where it's coming from and my dad is still walking about Gorgie."The total number of cases of Legionnaires' in the outbreak has risen to 95, with two new cases emerging as recently as Monday. A spokesman for NHS Lothian said: "The risk of infection is now very, very low as the towers involved were shock dosed with chlorine. The incubation period for this disease is up to 14 days and we have had no cases come outside of that. That would suggest very, very strongly that the source of the outbreak has been dealt with."He added that the health board had distributed 35,000 leaflets around the city and pushed electronic versions of them on websites and social networks. News of Mrs Bennett's plight came as a Health and Safety Executive chief admitted the organisation is concerned about apparently low levels of compliance with legionella guidance across the UK. Pam Waldron, director of the HSE in Scotland, said the fact two of six businesses inspected during the outbreak had been issued with improvement notices highlighted the problem. However, she stressed that, while this meant conditions at the North British Distillery and pharmaceuticals company Macfarlan Smith "had fallen below standards required by code of practice", it did not mean either was responsible for spreading Legionella. She said: "That's something we may have to look at."

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Family anger as Legionnaires' victim fights for life

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