The brother of a woman who died after contracting the MRSA superbug in hospital has said chickens have a higher level of biosecurity than intensive care patients.
Barbara Forde (67), of Dollymount Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin, was admitted to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, for a blocked intestine on October 22nd, 2006. She died on December 3rd.
She suffered respiratory failure following her operation and was taken to the intensive care unit of the hospital where she developed MRSA pneumonia two weeks after the operation.
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell said MRSA was a "significant factor" in her death which was stated as being acute respiratory distress syndrome, a lung condition that leads to multiple organ failure. "MRSA pneumonia was a significant factor, but, on the evidence given, it was one of a number of significant factors," the coroner said.
Ms Forde's brother, Dermot Forde, a well-known vet, said there needed to be a proper biosecurity regime for people entering intensive care units that was strictly policed by the hospitals.
Mr Forde, who represented the family at the inquest along with his brother, Brendan, said hospitals needed to adopt procedures that are common in countries including the Netherlands, Sweden and the US.
"I speak as a vet and I say without equivocation that there is more biosecurity in terms of access to chicken farms than there is in terms of intensive care post-operative units.
"Hospitals have a dispenser on the wall where you can choose to wash your hands, but there is no requirement. If I go into a chicken farm, as I did yesterday, I have to have total biosecurity measures taken," he said.
He said it was the family view that his sister had been improving until she contracted MRSA, which created a "domino effect" eventually leading to her death.
"There is no significant evidence that the MRSA had been significantly cleared from her system. Even if it was, the damage had been done because the tests showed no great improvement afterwards," he said afterwards.
Fr Brendan Forde, a missionary in Colombia who postponed his return to the country to be at the inquest, said hospitals needed to be more open about the presence of MRSA. "It is a violation of human rights to put really sick people into places where they contract infections that are going to contribute towards her death," he said.
Consultant surgeon Dr Henry Osbourne said he estimated that MRSA was half the cause of her death, but she was already "gravely ill" before contracting the disease and the doctors could not be sure that she would have survived even had she not contracted MRSA.
Solicitor for the hospital Declan Buckley said he disputed the word "significant" in relation to the MRSA being a factor in her death as Ms Forde had been a heavy smoker and had been admitted previously to the hospital with a lung complaint, while she also contracted pneumonia which was not related to MRSA.
