Ribble Valley farmer died from E.Coli after holiday in India (From Lancashire Telegraph)
When news happens, text LT and your photos and videos to 80360. Or contact us by email or phone.
Ribble Valley farmer died from E.Coli after holiday in India
4:00pm Friday 20th July 2012 in Darwen
By Jonathon Dillon, Assistant news editor
A RIBBLE Valley farmer died after contracting E.Coli from contaminated food he ate on holiday in India, an inquest heard.
Michael Alpe, 81, had been on holiday with his wife Jean visiting cities including Delhi and Jaipur when he started suffering from diarrhoea.
But his condition deteriorated after he flew back to the UK at the end of March.
Mr Alpe, who had four sons and 10 grandchildren, was admitted to the Royal Blackburn Hospital and under-went surgery to remove a large part of his bowel.
He was transferred to the intensive care unit and was put on a ventilator.
He died on May 17 from multiple organ failure and septicaemia caused by E-Coli and ischemic and hypertensive heart disease.
The inquest heard that Mr Alpe, who was still an active farmer at New Laund Farm, Whitewell, had been a 'fit and healthy man'. Mrs Alpe said her husband hadn't eaten any food outside the hotels they stayed in. She said: “We went to India with Saga and we thought we were well looked after. We had four lovely hotels, the food was properly prepared and we always had bottled water in our rooms."
She said her husband and other holiday guests devel-oped diarrhoea.
After returning to the UK, a doctor at Slaidburn Health Centre prescribed antibiotics to Mr Alpe.
But his condition did not improve and Mrs Alpe took him to Clitheroe Community Hospital.
She said: “The first thing they did was take blood tests and wired him up to monitors.
“When the blood sample came back, all hell broke loose.”
A post-mortem examin-ation was carried out by Dr Neil Sahasrabudhe, a consultant histopathologist at Royal Blackburn Hospital .
He said it was 'likely' the source of the E.Coli was contaminated food.
Coroner Michael Singleton recorded a verdict of accidental death.
woolywords says...
4:48pm Fri 20 Jul 12
Bit of a fly in the face, to all those complaining about the petting farms here, isn't it?
Whilst I admit that, a possible underlying condition of, ischemic and hypertensive heart disease, may have been a contributory factor, it doesn't get away from the fact of the E. coli being the root cause of his death.
Makes you wonder about eating foreign foods, doesn't it?
Personally, and I were in that family, I would ask for a review of the treatment given, just to make absolutely sure that he was, given his antecedence, given the best possible care that he could expect.
Was he asked, have you recently returned from abroad?
On a more personal note, I was treated for Jaundice, until someone asked me, if I had been in the Tropics, where Yellow Jacket Fever is the norm for Caucasians..
Admitting that I had been to British Honduras/Belize and Guatemala, saved my life, such as it is. Even though we were constrained to never speak of it.
My sincere and heartfelt condolences to all that knew him but take solace in the fact that he tried new things, which marks him as a true adventurer.
'How can we truly know these people, if we do not live, as they do?'