A grandmother died after contracting legionella from a hot tub at a holiday cottage rented to celebrate her 70th birthday, an inquest jury has ruled. Paulette Crookes, a retired butcher’s assistant, had been staying with family at the Dairyman’s Cottage at Tapnell Farm on the Isle of Wight – where she spent “a lot of time” in the hot tub.<\/p>\n
Soon after the holiday she became ill and her condition quickly deteriorated. Mrs Crookes died at St Mary’s Hospital, Newport, Isle of Wight, on March 8, 2020. A jury inquest into her death concluded today that her death was as a result of pneumonia which had been directly caused by a legionella infection acquired from the hot tub.<\/p>\n
Mrs Crookes, originally from Rochford in Essex and living in Sandown, Isle of Wight, had booked the February 2020 getaway with 10 relatives.<\/p>\n
The inquest previously heard that her family arrived on February 7, 2020, using the hot tub several times throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n
Her daughter Nicola Vaughan, 51, said her mum “spent a lot of time” in it on the first day – but, by the second day, the family had noticed a “strange smell” and “cloudy, off-colour” water.<\/p>\n
On the final day of the holiday, Mrs Crookes said she felt unwell and left early.<\/p>\n
Several relatives later became ill, including grandchildren who developed rashes.<\/p>\n
The family emailed Tapnell Farm to warn that some relatives were “ill” and “rashy” and passed on doctors’ comments that “the rash is a direct result of a poorly maintained hot tub”.<\/p>\n
Another of Mrs Crookes’ daughters, Denise Scott, 48, told the inquest: “From the time we arrived to the time we left, I did not see anyone check or test the water in the hot tub.”<\/p>\n
At home, Mrs Crookes’ condition worsened, as she suffered dizziness and vomiting.<\/p>\n
On February 16, she was rushed to hospital and transferred to ICU, where she struggled with a breathing mask.<\/p>\n
This was later removed as she was placed into an induced coma on February 18 so that she could rest.<\/p>\n
Days later, doctors confirmed she had legionella.<\/p>\n
Her condition worsened and she suffered a stroke and a heart attack before she died on March 8 after breathing tubes were removed.<\/p>\n
Mrs Scott told the inquest: “This was an utterly horrific experience. I thought my heart was breaking it hurt so much.”<\/p>\n
The inquest heard that Environmental Health visits took place at Tapnell Farm but none showed the strain of legionella that infected Mrs Crookes.<\/p>\n
The inquest heard that the Environmental Health investigation was “significantly hampered by the pandemic<\/p>\n
Mrs Crookes’ family lodged complaints with the council about their dissatisfaction with the investigation and the lack of.<\/p>\n
prosecution.<\/p>\n
Tapnell Farm accommodation manager Chloe Baker previously told the inquest she did not review hot tub testing records submitted by housekeeping manager Joanna Lloyd – instead, she simply filed them.<\/p>\n
Coroner Caroline Sumeray told the jury: “Perhaps that might have been a more professional approach to risk assessment.”<\/p>\n
The inquest heard all hot tubs at Tapnell Farm were removed in March 2020 for reasons including environmental concerns, energy use, health and safety – and the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Housekeeping manager Joanna Lloyd, responsible for maintaining and testing the hot tubs, insisted during the inquest that she tested the water daily and had noticed no issues.<\/p>\n
The coroner reminded the jury in summing up: “I questioned Ms Lloyd robustly about whether she had actually done the testing when the Crookes party was present, as none of them had seen her during two visits – and the dogs hadn’t barked.<\/p>\n
“She was insistent that she had visited.”<\/p>\n
She added: “Ultimately, it is a matter for you to decide if the tests were done on those days based on the evidence that you have heard.”<\/p>\n
Before sending the jury out, the coroner asked them: “Are you satisfied on the balance of probability that the legionella pneumophila infection was acquired from the hot tub at Dairyman’s Cottage?”<\/p>\n
The jury concluded that Mrs Crookes died from pneumonia caused by a legionella pneumophila infection acquired from the hot tub at the holiday cottage where she had celebrated her birthday.<\/p>\n
After the conclusion, the coroner thanked Mrs Crookes’ family for their “extraordinary patience and dignity”.<\/p>\n
She added: “Your beloved mum died right at the start of the pandemic and the whole investigation took an age to complete, because everything went down at that extraordinary time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A grandmother died after contracting legionella from a hot tub at a holiday cottage rented to celebrate her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6962,105,193930,193931,193929,10462,193932,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-624104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-emergency-news","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-hot-tub-safety","11":"tag-inquest-findings","12":"tag-legionella-infection","13":"tag-real-life-stories","14":"tag-tapnell-farm","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115695082982975770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}