Jury rules on mum's death (From Dudley News)

Jury rules on mum's death

2:40pm Wednesday 15th December 2010 in News

A 51 YEAR-old Dudley mother who was in remission from Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, died after contracting Legionnaires’ disease an inquest heard.

Patricia Ashton, from Newland Grove, died of Legionella Pneumophila at Russells Hall Hospital in August 2007.

At a hearing at Smethwick Coroners Court, Black Country Coroner Robin Balmain and an inquest jury heard that between June and August of that year, a total of five cases, including Mrs Ashton’s, were confirmed and all traced back to water cooling towers in a small area within Dudley.

Following a verdict of death by industrial disease returned by the jury, Mrs Ashton’s family said they were convinced she would still be alive today if she had not caught the disease, which is contracted by inhaling contaminated water droplets or water vapour.

Speaking on behalf of her family, son Ian said: “Even now, three years on, it’s very difficult to come to terms with mum’s death.

Although she had been battling cancer, the doctors had told us that she was in remission and all the signs were that she had beaten the illness.

“We are convinced that if she hadn’t contracted Legionnaires’ she would still be with us today.

She would now be enjoying spending time with her two young grandchildren, Spencer aged two and Maisie aged nine months, who she sadly never got to see.

He added: “Not knowing how she came into contact with this disease was very hard to cope with, but we now know that the disease did come from bacteria in an industrial site in the Dudley area.”

Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria, with symptoms including flu like illness with muscle aches, tiredness, headaches, loss of appetite, dry cough and fever.

Following the outbreak, Health and Safety Inspectors and Environmental Health Officers from Dudley Council visited a number of cooling tower sites in the borough to confirm the precise outbreak location. To date, the HSE has prosecuted at least one company regarding the failings identified during the outbreak and more prosecutions are still planned.