Two women died after ‘eating chicken mayo sandwiches while at hospital’
An inquest heard how two women died after eating hospital chicken mayo sandwiches suspected of containing listeria.
Retired Jamaican nurse Beverley Sowah, 57, and mum-of-five Enid Heap, 84, were given the sandwiches at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) in 2019 on successive days.
Both women had underlying health conditions and died days later.
Mrs Sowah was admitted to the hospital on April 15 2019 because she had advanced breast cancer and she died on April 26 two days after eating the sandwich.
Mrs Heap was admitted on March 25 2019 and ate the sandwich on April 18. She died on May 6.
Manchester Coroner’s Court heard today how the source of the bacteria was linked to an external food supplier not the kitchens at the hospital.
North Country Quality Food, based in Salford, supplied the chicken to the Good Food Chain, who made the sandwiches from their ‘Whole lotta Good’ range, supplied to hospitals, via a contract with Sodexo.
The Good Food Chain supplied around 70 hospital and made up to 40,000 sandwiches a day, the court heard.
The meat supplier and sandwich maker firms have gone into liquidation.
Zak Golombeck, Manchester city coroner, said: ‘This case concerns the deaths of two individuals, for whom, there is reason to suspect, they died of a notifiable disease, namely listeria.’
There was no evidence of ‘sub-optimal’ care for Ms Sowah apart from the ‘hospital-acquired’ listeria infection.
Mr Golombeck said the ‘primary hypothesis’ was the source of the listeria infection was the chicken sandwiches consumed by both women.
Dr Kirsty Dodgson, consultant microbiologist at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said a number of outbreak meetings were held to identify the source of the listeria.
This involved both the Health and Safety Executive and Public Health England.
It then became a nationwide investigation because of other listeria cases in other locations across the country.
The court heard how the listeria outbreak had the same genetic link as another outbreak in Liverpool.
The inquest was adjourned until Tuesday morning.
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