Sadness over 93-year-old's Mother's Day superbug diagnosis

Published on Wednesday 9 June 2010 21:27

TWO sisters have revealed their heartbreak at discovering the hospital bug that claimed their mother's life was diagnosed on Mother's Day.

Ellen Gildea's daughters told an inquiry yesterday that their mother, who had contracted the hospital bug Clostridium difficile, was "like an angel" just days before she died, aged 93.

Helen Neeson and Anne McGarrity were giving evidence to the Vale of Leven Hospital Inquiry, which is investigating the outbreak of C difficile which infected 55 people and killed 18 of them.

Mrs Neeson told how she noticed "a big change" in her mother on the last occasion she saw her because she was wearing clean clothes and she felt she had been given a bath.

She said the sheets and pillow cases were often grubby and that her mother told her she was given a basin to wash her hands and face in.

Breaking down Mrs Neeson said: "She was like an angel lying there in a pink nightdress, and that was the last vision I had of her. That day there was just a change in her face."

Mrs Neeson was on holiday when she was given the news her mother had passed away just five days after her diagnosis.

Her younger sister, Anne McGarrity, described how she was told that their mother, who was admitted to hospital after suffering a stroke, went on to develop diarrhoea, but that this was a reaction to antibiotics.

However, she was told over the phone on Mother's Day, 2008 that Mrs Gildea had "an infection".

The inquiry, taking place in Glasgow, continues.