Gardener killed by a virus lurking in hosepipe
Grandad, 63, dies of Legionnaires’ disease
A GRANDFATHER died after catching Legionnaires’ disease from a garden hose while cleaning his terrace.
Stephen Clements, 63, became ill after using the hose, which had been left on the lawn with water inside it.
Warm conditions allowed the toxic legionella virus to multiply inside and he inhaled tiny droplets as he used the hose outside his home in Cromer, Norfolk. His widow, Alison, 61, has spoken out about the tragedy so his case serves as a warning to other gardeners.
‘Within a week of cleaning the terrace of our cottage with a stiff broom and a garden hose, my husband Stephen was dead,’ she said.
‘Stephen had cleaned the patio a month earlier and left the hose out across the lawn filled with water that warmed up in the sunshine.
‘In the winter sun it was the perfect temperature for the bacteria to breed. He was cleaning the terrace with a stiff broom and the garden hose on spray. The sweeping of the broom caused the perfect aerosol, which my husband then breathed into his lungs.
‘My husband had a heart condition but was active and well. He began having symptoms, which appeared to be an upset stomach to start with but rapidly developed into pneumonia.
‘The intensive care unit at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital did all it possibly could but to no avail. We had no idea that a garden hose could be lethal.’ Mrs Clements said even when her husband, a retired builder, went into hospital she assumed he would bounce back from the infection. ‘I didn’t believe them when they said he might not make it. Steve and I had been together 43 years.
‘ The last thing we spoke about was what we would do when he came home,’ she said. ‘He spent his last two days in intensive care. They called me and said Steve kept taking his oxygen mask off because he didn’t like it and that they were going to sedate him so they could insert a respirator.
‘His heart rate was going up and his kidneys began to fail. And then they told us the antibiotics weren’t working on the pneumonia.
‘They took him off his heart medication and his heart beat maybe another half a dozen times and then he was gone.
‘our family feels his loss very deeply, especially as his death could have been prevented if we had had the knowledge of the dangers of the legionella bacteria.’
Mother-of-two Mrs Clements said her two grandchildren – olivia, four, and William, two – were struggling to come to terms with Mr Clements’s death on February 24.
‘William especially doesn’t understand,’ she said. ‘He’s just started to say “Papa gone?” But then he’ll climb out of the car ten days later and ask if Papa’s here.’
Legionnaires’ disease is not contagious and cannot be spread from person to person. It is usually caught by breathing in tiny droplets of contaminated water.
The bacteria thrives in temperatures between 20C (68F) and 55C (113F) and when there are impurities to feed on such as rust, algae or limescale.
It exists harmlessly in bodies of water such as ponds, rivers and lakes but can multiply rapidly in artificial water supply systems, such as air conditioning. Large buildings with complex systems are more at risk of an outbreak.
However, the Royal Horticultural Society warns the legionella bacteria can multiply in standing warm water.
Its website states: ‘Empty the water out of garden hoses and do not leave full hoses in the sun after use. If the temperature of stored water for use in mist irrigation or sprinklers is above 20C, do not use.’
‘We had no idea’