The death of a patient at Hervey Bay Hospital was not related to the legionella outbreak. Source: News Corp Australia
PATIENTS at Hervey Bay Hospital are being given bottled water to drink and are having sponge baths instead of showers after legionella bacteria were found in the hospital’s water supply.
Checks were ordered after the death of a 76-year-old who tested positive to legionella, although a Queensland Government spokesman said the elderly man was believed to have died of other causes.
Calls to the Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service went unanswered tonight.
The latest hospital legionella scare in Queensland follows a 2013 outbreak at The Wesley Hospital in Brisbane.
Sunshine Coast grandfather John Pearson died and a woman required intensive care as a result of that outbreak. Mr Pearson was being treated at The Wesley Hospital for cancer when he developed Legionnaires’ disease and died.