Family of Legionnaires victim awaits explanation

Tallaght Hospital has serious questions to answer about its treatment of a man who died of Legionnaire's disease earlier this month, the man's family has said.

Mr Bob Brophy (69) contracted the disease after he inhaled droplets of water from a hot-tub at a house he was viewing for his daughter, Ms Geraldine Wilson, on Friday, March 7th.

Ms Wilson said yesterday her father began to feel ill the following Wednesday and went to see his GP.

Despite being prescribed anti-biotics and initially feeling better, Mr Brophy deteriorated and went back to his GP on Thursday evening.

The GP advised him to go straight to Tallaght Hospital and told the Brophy family he would be admitted to a ward immediately.

"But he was made go through Casualty," said Ms Wilson. "We were not happy at all with the way he was treated there. He was left sitting in a chair from four o'clock in the afternoon until midnight.

"Then he was put on a trolley bed and stayed in Casualty until seven o'clock the next evening.

"This is a man who was very ill. At one point we were asked to leave Casualty for an hour because he needed rest and when we came back we found a man in great distress."

Ms Wilson said her father was admitted at seven o'clock on Sunday, March 16th.

"They said he had pneumonia. We thought it was routine, that pneumonia was quite treatable, that he was in hospital and that things would be fine.

"But then he deteriorated quite rapidly. He was needing more and more oxygen, and his temperature had gone right back up. They had to sedate him and then they said they had no beds in intensive care in Tallaght, and that he would have to be moved to Blanchardstown."

It was in Blanchardstown that the doctors told the family that they did not in fact know what they were treating in Mr Brophy.

She said her father was "wonderfully cared for in Blanchardstown", adding that staff there stabilised him in the ICU, though they were told he might not make it through the night.

The following day, March 19th, Mr Brophy was diagnosed with Legionnaires' disease and put on the correct course of antibiotics.

"Unfortunately, it was a week since he had first contracted the disease and his body was already so ravaged by it. I think he started to go into multiple organ failure. His kidneys failed," Ms Wilson said.

He survived a number of weeks more, but died in Beaumont on Thursday, April 17th.

"We feel very aggrieved with Tallaght," said Ms Wilson yesterday.

Her mother, Sylvia, is currently in hospital with heart problems brought on, says Ms Wilson, by the stress of the past few weeks. She was due to be admitted to Tallaght also but again was told she would have to be admitted via Casualty.

Ms Wilson said she also found "quite unbelievable" the fact that the family was not told by Tallaght Hospital doctors that they were not clear about what exactly they were treating.

A spokeswoman said last night that Tallaght Hospital was investigating Mr Brophy's case.