![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/papworth-hospital-coroner-warning-over-contaminated-water-deaths/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/127500869_martinez_starling_976.jpg&description=Image source, Family handoutsImage caption, Anne Martinez and Karen Starling died the year after undergoing double lung transplantsA coroner has issued a warning over a lack of guidance around a bacteria that contaminated a new hospital's water supply and led to two women dying.Anne Martinez, 65, and Karen Starling, 54, died a year after undergoing double lung transplants at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge in 2019.Both contracted mycobacterium abscessus, likely to have come from the site's water supply, an inquest heard.The coroner said there were issues that gave "rise to a risk of future deaths".The hospital trust's chief executive, Eilish Midlane, said at the time the issue was identified in 2019 it "took immediate action to ensure patient safety".Keith Morton KC, assistant coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, told the inquest the bacteria was "of particular concern to lung transplant patients".It heard 21 people had contracted mycobacterium abscessus in the months after the hospital opened in 2019.Mrs Starling, from Ipswich, suffered with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was recommended for a lung transplant in 2014, undergoing the procedure in 2019.However, by the September she began to develop shortness of breath. In January 2020 she was readmitted to Royal Papworth, but her health deteriorated and she died a month later. Mrs Martinez, of Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, received a lung transplant at the hospital in July 2019 and shortly afterwards contracted mycobacterium abscessus.Her family told the inquest "with failing health, she was forced to fight constantly to get treatment" and she died in December 2020.Image source, Family handoutImage caption, Anne Martinez died in December 2020, an inquest heardGiving his findings at Peterborough Town Hall, Mr Morton said: "Neither Mrs Starling nor Mrs Martinez would have died at the time or in the circumstances they did but for their exposure to mycobacterium abscessus in the hospital. "It){kind=link}
A coroner has issued a warning over a lack of guidance around a bacteria that contaminated a new hospital’s water supply and led to two women dying.
Anne Martinez, 65, and Karen Starling, 54, died a year after undergoing double lung transplants at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge in 2019.
Both contracted mycobacterium abscessus, likely to have come from the site’s water supply, an inquest heard.
The coroner said there were issues that gave “rise to a risk of future deaths”.
The hospital trust’s chief executive, Eilish Midlane, said it had followed national guidance in place at the time, and when the issue was identified in 2019 it “took immediate action to ensure patient safety”.