Mother dies as 150 heart patients told they are at risk from Hepatitis B in NHS hospital outbreak

A mother has died and hundreds of patients could be infected after hepatitis B was apparently spread by unclean surgical equipment at a hospital.
Patients who have received any kind of heart surgery at the  hospital in recent months have  been informed that they may have contracted the virus.
The woman who died, who has not been named, is believed to have caught the infection from another patient, possibly after surgeons  used the same probe during two operations.

The patient is believed to have caught Hepatitis B from a fellow patient at Morriston Hospital, in Swansea

A spokesman for Morriston Hospital in South Wales said the patient was treated and discharged as planned after making a ‘good recovery’.
He said: ‘The patient was later newly diagnosed with an acute  hepatitis B infection. The patient has sadly since died.’

Hospital chiefs have contacted every patient who underwent an operation in the heart and chest unit over five weeks in March and April.
They suspect a ‘magic eye’ probe put into the throat to take ultrasound pictures of the heart may be the source of the cross-infection.

Hepatitis B (pictured) is a viral infection spread through blood and other bodily fluids

They have ordered new equipment and suspended non-urgent heart surgery until it is delivered.
The family of the woman, who died last month from acute liver  failure, have lodged an official complaint with the local health watchdog, which has launched an inquiry.
They said they were ‘extremely distressed’ at her death and to ‘learn that the infection was transmitted from a patient already known to  be infected’.
Hepatitis B is a viral infection which is spread through blood and other bodily fluids.
The alert affects 290 patients who had cardiothoracic surgery at the 750-bed Morriston Hospital in  Swansea in March and April.
The spokesman said: ‘There is a low risk that these patients may have been exposed to the hepatitis B virus during their stay in the unit.
'They are being offered blood tests to check if they have been infected.
‘In rare cases, hepatitis B can lead to serious liver damage and death.’
The hospital says it has carried out an action plan in the investigation to ‘ensure everything possible is done to stop a similar incident happening in future’.
The spokesman said both the hospital’s cardiac operating theatres had been redecorated and deep-cleaned, along with related wards.