Granny dies in 2nd case of Legionnaires’ at 4-star hotel
THE family of a grandmother who died after contracting Legionnaires’ disease at a hotel are demanding to know why it was allowed to stay open when deadly bacteria was discovered in the water three months earlier.
Elaine Brown, 69, died in August following a one-night stay at The Feathers Hotel, in Ludlow, Shropshire, around a month earlier.
Following her death it emerged that another woman had contracted the disease from contaminated water at the fourstar hotel in April – but Public Health England failed to publicise the outbreak or advise the council to shut it down.
Mrs Brown’s husband, Graham, 58, said yesterday there was ‘no chance’ the couple would have stayed at the 400-year-old hotel if they had known about the previous case.
Mrs Brown’s son, playwright Neil Edwards, 44, agreed that, given his mother’s background as a retired health and safety researcher, she would have understood the perils of Legionnaires’ disease and avoided the hotel.
‘If she had known there had been a case at the hotel they would not have stayed there and would be alive today,’ he said.
‘We all miss mum so much. It is hard to believe she has gone.
‘Our grief, however, is mixed with anger. We deserve to know why the hotel was not closed following the first case in April.’
The family is taking legal action. Solictor Jatinder Paul of Irwin Mitchell said they were angry because they felt Mrs Brown’s death was ‘avoidable.’
She and her husband, who had been married for almost 30 years, travelled from their home in Liverpool for a stay at the Jacobean hotel as part of a coach excursion on July 31. Experts
‘Grief mixed with anger’
believe Mrs Brown, a history buff who spoke six languages, contracted the disease after showering in contaminated water.
It is caused when legionella bacteria, spread via airborne water droplets, is breathed into the lungs. Mrs Brown began feeling unwell around 10 days later, com- plaining of aching limbs, feeling delirious and being so tired she couldn’t get out of bed.
She was taken to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital on August 13 and although doctors quickly diagnosed Legionnaires’ disease, it was too late. Mrs Brown developed sepsis and died after suffering a stroke on August 26.
It then emerged a 70-year- old woman, also from Merseyside, had developed the disease following a stay at The Feathers which costs £117 a night, in April but recovered.
It is understood Shropshire Council issued an improvement notice following the incident and the hotel closed a number of affected rooms, disinfected the water system and employed heating contractors to investigate the boilers and pipework.
The affected areas were re-tested and allowed to re-open in June. A spokesman for Public Health England said it was not standard practice to inform the public of ‘single’ cases of the disease and added: ‘We were satisfied that the risk to the public was minimal.
‘ The hotel took all remedial action we advised and subsequent tests in May and June came back clear, so those parts of the hotel affected were re-opened.’
It was only after Mrs Brown’s death, when tests revealed the same strain of legionella bacteria was responsible for the disease in both women, that the hotel voluntarily shut in order for its plumbing and water system to be overhauled. It is expected to re-open later this month.
Yesterday, general manager Ian Taylor said he was unable to comment for legal reasons.