Editor’s view: Transplant deaths highlight failures in our hospitals

There are many questions over the spate of deaths in public hospitals linked to fungal infections – and Queenslanders deserve answers, writes the editor.

There are many questions over the spate of deaths in public hospitals linked to fungal infections – and Queenslanders deserve answers.

Today, it can be revealed a third transplant patient in Queensland died after contracting a fungal infection.

Jurgen Zoller, 57, had undergone a bone-marrow transplant at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

He never made it out after contracting a fungal infection.

His devastated widow is demanding an urgent overhaul of transplant safety protocol following the death, alleging he was encouraged by staff to sit out in the garden veranda, where grit and dust floated around – often exacerbated by the hospital helicopter flying overhead.

Soil and plant matter can contain fungi that is deadly to vulnerable people.

Jurgen Zoller was a transplant patient who died at RBWH after contracting a fungal infection. Photo: Supplied.

Dani Zoller-Bellette told her heartbreaking story to The Courier-Mail after reports this week of a second heart transplant patient dying at Prince Charles Hospital following a fungus cluster.

“I don’t want Jurgen just to be a number. I don’t want anyone else to feel like I’m feeling,” she said.

“My future has been taken away from me and everything has changed forever for our family.”

Her words are a tragic reminder that at the heart of this issue are real families hurting.

The communication with the affected families so far has been woeful, with some only finding out about the cluster through the television news.

Dani Zoller-Bellette whose husband Jurgen died after contracting a fungal infection at the RBWH. pic: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard, an infectious disease expert, has said the situation at Prince Charles Hospital is “complex”, but fungal infections within transplant units “do occur from time to time”.

Mr Zoller had been a patient at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Picture David Clark

“A source may be identified, or it’s quite possible it will never be identified and that we will not see further cases,” he said.

“It may just be an abnormal statistical variation or it may be that there was a common source.”

He may be right and a definitive cause of these infections could never be identified.

But what authorities can do is review their protocols and tell the public what measures will be put in place to at least reduce the likelihood of it happening to another Queensland family.

They can also ensure patients and their families are educated on the risks of contracting these types of infections in hospital.

It is clear improvements must be made, and that needs to start with open communication, and any findings from the investigation into the cluster at Prince Charles Hospital must be made public.