A WOMAN died from Legionnaires’ disease after her symptoms were mistaken for swine flu, the Newbury Weekly News can reveal.
Carol Rowe, of Thatcham, died on Sunday, August 2, aged 46.
Now her husband Kevin, a Detective Inspector with Thames Valley Police, has vowed to make a formal complaint about her treatment.
Mr Rowe claimed that the South Central Ambulance Service initially refused to take his wife to hospital because her symptoms resembled those of swine flu.
He said that only following a third call hours later did they take her to the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, where she died.
He said: “I’m pretty angry about it. I'm going to be asking them questions about why they thought it was not necessary to attend.
“My wife died in terrible
circumstances but it does seem to me that swine flu has got in the way of making a better
diagnosis. That’s a heck of a price to pay if they could have done something about it.”
He added: “If someone else has it and they don’t ask the right questions are we going to have the same thing again?”
He said that he, his son Jack and daughter Rebecca were “going through hell”.
Following Mrs Rowe’s death, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) launched an investigation into how she contracted the deadly, infectious disease.
HPA spokeswoman Teresa Cash said that its responsibility was to protect the health of the public and if it found Legionella bacteria at sufficiently harmful levels in one place then it would be its duty to inform the public.
She said that as part of the investigation, they would take a two-week history of the patient, tracking her every movement to find out where the disease was contracted.
She said: “In this case she worked in London so we are also working with the assistance of environmental health officers in the council area in which she works.
“Thus far we have not had anything positive come back from any of the places we have tested.”
She also confirmed that samples from the family home had come back negative and they would continue sampling until they had exhausted all their sources.
NHS Berkshire West spokeswoman Corrine Yates said: “NHS Berkshire West has notified the Health Protection Agency of a case and subsequent death from Legionella.
“At this stage this appears to be an isolated incident and there is no cause for public concern about any possible spread.”
In 2002, Barrow-in-Furness suffered the UK’s worst outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
Six women and one man died as a result of the illness and another 172 people also contracted the disease. The cause was found to be a contaminated cooling tower at the town’s arts centre.
A statement from the ambulance service said that it could not comment on individual patients but pointed out that the service dealt with an average 300 calls daily and added: “Patients are encouraged to call back immediately if the situation worsens.”
South Central Ambulance Service said that they could not comment on a patient’s clinical condition.
However, a statement later released said: “When we receive an emergency call, the call taker takes all the relevant details relating to the incident and enters them onto the Computer Aided Dispatch system.
“An emergency care practitioner may also speak with the patient or caller and offer additional clinical advice and assess the best care pathway for the needs of the patient.
“A patient’s care pathway is based on the assessment by our clinically trained staff.”