A local dialysis patient picked-up a potentially fatal infection – after unwittingly taking a wash using Connemara’s contaminated public water supply.
Joe Wall was at risk of septicaemia, a blood poisoning caused by infection that can kill, after taking a routine shower at his home in Bothar Buí, An Cheathrú Rua.
“I got a serious infection from taking a shower – and I’d to pay €240 for the privilege,” he said, referring to water charges he’s paid to Irish water.
The 58-year-old is a peritoneal dialysis patient that receives treatment through his stomach by a Tenckhoff catheter nine-hours overnight.
A little over a month ago, the city security worker took a shower to clean the area around where the tube enters his abdominal, as normal.
Around the same time – unbeknownst to Mr Wall – Irish Water and Galway County Council issued a boil water notice in An Cheathrú Rua due to cryptosporidium contamination in the water supply.
Some days later Mr Wall said he didn’t feel well, and he mentioned it to nurses at a routine check-up in Merlin Park Hospital. “There was like a bleeding ooze coming out of my abdomen. It had never happened before,” recalled Mr Wall.
Nurses took a swab for testing and he was given some anti-biotics as a precaution and sent home.
A couple of days later, the hospital phoned to confirm that test results proved he had contracted an E. coli infection. He was given even stronger drugs to battle the virus, and the infection was thoroughly cleaned.
Mr Wall was lucky the outcome wasn’t more grave.
“It could have been potentially very serious if the infection got into the cavity, they told me. That could induce septicaemia – a blood poisoning from E. coli – and if it’s not treated it could kill you,” he said.
See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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