The second of a group of patients who contracted a deadly fungal infection at a Brisbane hospital has died just six weeks after receiving a life-saving heart transplant.
Adam Retmock, 45, was one of five Prince Charles Hospital patients involved in the infection cluster and the second to succumb to the disease.
He is survived by his devastated wife Kelly Richards, who told 7News her husband could not endure the continued pain inflicted by post-operative complications.
Adam Retmock, 45, was one of five Prince Charles Hospital patients involved in the infection cluster and the second to succumb to the disease.
Mr Retmock is survived by his devastated wife Kelly Richards
“After the transplant there were a number of complications…Adam had acquired a fungal infection,” Mrs Richards said.
Despite weeks of treatments and procedures to try to treat the infection, Retmock died in hospital on Friday, November 10.
“He said, ‘I’m done, I just can’t go on with this level of suffering,'” Ms. Richards said.
‘I understand that if I had not contracted this infection I would still be here.
“That last week of his life could have been so much better.”
A hospital spokesperson said reviews of the other four cases who contracted fungal infections at the Brisbane hospital were in their “early stages”.
“Despite extensive testing, no link has been established between the fungal infections detected in the five heart transplant patients and the hospital,” they stated.
‘It is understood that the patient was experiencing several complications after the transplant.
“Transplant patients are some of our most vulnerable patients and can be susceptible to various diseases and infections in the community, especially once they return home.”
Mr Retmock died in hospital on Friday 10 November.
While the other four patients, all of whom had transplants, were sent home, Mr. Retmock never left the hospital.
All affected patients received prophylactic antifungal treatment.
Initial analyzes have identified four different strains of fungal infection among the five patients, only one of which was the strain found at Prince Charles Hospital.
7News also reported that a high fungal reading was found in the area where equipment used to recover transplant organs was stored, although this was not confirmed by the hospital.
Mr Retmock’s family said they only learned he could die from the infection while watching the news in hospital and that his doctors had not told them.
“I should have found out in the hospital because he was a very brave person,” Mrs Retmock said.
‘I would like the other families who are still involved to be better communicated and for all the information to be clearer to them.
“I will miss him forever.”
Another heart transplant patient is understood to have died from multiple complications in September.
