Although a hospital is supposed to be a place of health and recovery, in the case of Dr Kieran Sweeney, it was the exact opposite. At a hearing in Exeter,the claim was made that Sweeney died of pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the pleura, the lining of the lungs, due to breathing in dust and debris from pipe lagging at the Royal Infirmary and Southern General Hospital.
Sweeney was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 1979, a cancer that is caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos. Two weeks before his death in 2009 at the age of 58, Sweeney wrote to his lawyers to say he had been exposed to asbestos in the medical block of Southern General.
He blamed the “miles and miles of pipe work on the exterior of walls” that carried hot water and other utilities and on which he often saw tradesmen working. Sweeney claimed that the lagging was usually removed to repair the pipes in the corridors.
Sweeneys post-mortem examination declared cause of death to be mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure, which the doctors lawyers feel is an indication that death was not due to natural causes, but rather to industrial disease.
Unfortunately, Sweeneys case is not an isolated occurrence in the UK. A report by Dr Robin Rudd, a physician and leading expert on mesothelioma, says other medical and nursing staff at several other hospitals around the country have suffered similar circumstances.