Woman receives apology after contracting Legionnaires’ disease in spa

A woman who contracted Legionnaires’ disease after using the spa facilities of the Muckross Park Hotel in Killarney, Co Kerry has received an apology in the High Court.

Mary Kelleher, who is from Cork, had sued the five-star hotel and specialist water treatment business Chem-Aqua. She contracted the disease after staying in the hotel in August 2015 to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary. She said that after checking into the hotel she went and “tried everything”, including the pool, sauna, steam room, and the hot and cold spa pools.

Kelleher ended up becoming unwell after the hotel visit and in an induced coma for three weeks before waking on 9 September. She suffered life changing injuries and now has chronic fatigue. Her senior counsel Pearse Sreenan said her quality of life had deteriorated and was never going to recover. The Health Service Executive had convened an incident control team to look into the matter, he noted, and bacteria was traced back to the hotel and the indoor cold spa pool was thought to be the most likely source of infection.

In an apology read to the court, the hotel and NCH Ireland Ltd, trading as Chem-Aqua, said they did not underestimate the profound distress and impact that this had and continued to have on Mrs Kelleher’s life. They sincerely apologised for the serious injuries she suffered and wanted to assure her that they had made significant investment in the facilities and in a best practice legionella prevention programme. The hotel said it had implemented substantial changes to ensure there was no recurrence of this event.

The court heard the case had been settled but details were confidential. There have been no further incidents of this nature at the hotel since 2015.