Patient infected with the listeria sandwich 'lucky to be alive & # 39;

A woman infected with a potentially fatal listeria strain by a sandwich at the hospital says she is lucky to be alive.

Tanya Marston, 38, was on treatment for Crohn's disease when she ate a contaminated sandwich at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent.

Three patients died in the epidemic, related to salads and pre-packaged sandwiches from The Good Food Chain.

The hospital trust apologized to Ms. Marston for "the additional stress and discomfort" she suffered.

Ms. Marston said she was due to leave her four-week hospital stay last month when her temperature would have "risen."

The doctors took blood samples. She was then called back to the hospital and given intravenous antibiotics after tests revealed that she was infected.

"I could have died"

She said that she "considers herself very lucky" that her high temperature has led to the diagnosis of the infection.

"I'm really grateful for taking the blood cultures," she said.

"If that had not been done, I could be one of those people who died."

She added, "There is a duty of care in this country and I wonder what opportunities might have been missed to get to the point where people are poisoned by the food that hospitals give them."

In a letter to Ms. Marston from Dr. Paul Stevens, Medical Director of East Kent Hospitals University, it was "most likely that you contracted the virus in a sandwich that the hospital offered you".

Public Health England (PHE) said six patients had been affected by the outbreak. Two patients from the Manchester Royal Infirmary and one from Aintree Hospital have died.

According to PHE, infections in healthy people usually go unnoticed or cause mild illness, but can have more serious consequences for people with pre-existing health conditions or pregnant women.

North Country's cooked meats, which provided the right food chain, then tested positive for the epidemic strain of listeria, PHE said.

This company and North Country Quality Foods, which it distributes through the network, have voluntarily ceased production.

Good Food Chain Ltd stated that the company's production facilities in Stone, Staffordshire, were "cross-contaminated by an ingredient from one of its approved meat suppliers".

A spokesman for North Country Cooked Meats said his country "cooperated fully with environmental health and the Food Standards Agency in their investigations".