Ian Hitchcock: Cancer patient died after listeria infection

A cancer patient died after contracting listeria, an inquest has found.

Ian Hitchcock, who lived near Matlock, Derbyshire, died on 8 June 2019.

A jury at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court found he died from “liver failure due to metastatic cancer and listeria infection”, and said it was “probable” he contracted listeria eating food on a hospital visit.

University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust (UHDB) said it offered “heartfelt condolences” to his family.

The court heard Mr Hitchcock, a 52-year-old haulage contractor, had lived a healthy and “active” lifestyle until 2011, when he was diagnosed with kidney disease.

He required a kidney transplant in 2016, and on 24 April 2019 he went to see his GP due to abdominal pains.

On 5 May he went to Royal Derby Hospital’s emergency department with abdominal pain and five days later it was confirmed he had abdominal and liver cancer.

After a meeting it was confirmed his cancer was advanced, and on 14 May it was determined that treatment was “not appropriate”.

On 15 May he was readmitted to hospital with abdominal pain, and two days later a listeria infection was confirmed.

He was transferred to Nottingham City Hospital on 21 May, where he died on 8 June.

The jury confirmed a medical cause of death as liver failure, with metastatic sigmoid adenocarcinoma and systemic listeria infection also factors.

As part of the process they looked into where Mr Hitchcock could have contracted the listeria bacteria.

“During his visits to the hospital it is probable that Ian consumed food containing higher levels of listeria,” the jury found.

The court heard Mr Hitchcock’s infection was linked to other confirmed cases in that year through whole genome sequencing.

Jurors also said some fridges at the hospital “were and had been operating at too high a temperature and contained insufficiently chilled sandwiches”, adding records and checks on fridges “were inconsistent”.

In a statement released after the inquest, UHDB said staff “take safety standards very seriously”, adding Royal Derby Hospital has “a top food hygiene rating”.

“While the inquest acknowledged that it was not possible to determine exactly when Ian consumed listeria bacteria, at the time of the national outbreak in 2019 we took immediate steps to improve aspects of how food was stored at the Royal Derby Hospital,” the statement said.

“[We] have put significant changes in place since that time, including twice-daily food fridge temperature checks, creating a dedicated team to monitor and deliver food, introducing temperature-controlled vending machines, and putting improved processes in place to better trace what food is given each patient.”

Peter Nieto, area coroner for Derby and Derbyshire, offered his condolences to Mr Hitchcock’s family, and apologised for the length of time it took to complete the inquest, which he said was “far too long”.

A member of Mr Hitchcock’s family accepted the apology, adding: “We now look forward to closure as a family on this.”

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