A CORONER HAS advised members of the public to observe general hygiene around pets after an inquest heard a Dublin man died as a result of an infection which he probably acquired after his dog licked broken skin on his leg.

Craig Jones (49), a taxi driver and married father of two from Rusheeny Avenue, Hartstown, Dublin, died in Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown on 21 December 2022.

A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard a postmortem showed Jones died from sepsis due to an infection that can be transferred to humans from dogs and cats.

Relatives of the deceased said he had suffered from severe psoriasis and had lots of wounds on his skin from the disease.

The deceased’s wife, Sandra Jones, who was unable to attend the hearing, told the inquest in a written statement that her husband had been feeling unwell when she left for work on the morning of December 20, 2022.

Sandra Jones said she immediately thought he might have sepsis when she found him purple-coloured and cold when she returned home later at 4pm.

She said her family decided to drive him themselves to hospital after being told they would have to wait three and a half hours for an ambulance.

The inquest heard Craig Jones collapsed on arrival at Connolly Hospital and was placed on life support after he suffered the first of six cardiac arrests within a few hours.

Sandra Jones said her husband had also told her that he thought he was hallucinating a few days earlier when he was in a pub.

The inquest heard that the man had his spleen removed when he was 24 and had suffered a heart attack in 2018.

He was on a drug trial at the time of his death for the treatment of psoriasis for which he took daily injections but which would have suppressed his immune system.

However, other relatives told the hearing that he was “fit as a fiddle” and ran 10km on a daily basis.

In reply to questions from the coroner, Cróna Gallagher, they also confirmed that Craig Jones loved his pet beagle whom they described as “licking and affectionate.”

A consultant microbiologist at Connolly Hospital, Eoghan O’Neill, said the patient had suffered multi-organ failure as a result of severe sepsis.

O’Neill said normal tests at the hospital had been unable to detect the source of the infection which had caused the sepsis.

However, blood samples sent for specialist testing at a laboratory in the UK had identified the infection as one associated with pets.

O’Neill observed that it was rarely associated with causing sepsis in humans.

He said the antibiotics that Jones was already being treated with could be used to fight the infection but the patient was “just too unwell and did not respond.”

O’Neill said the infection was normally caused by someone being bitten by a pet.

However, Jones’ relatives stressed that he had not been bitten by his dog.

O’Neill acknowledged that the infection could result from saliva from a pet coming in contact with broken skin.

He agreed with the coroner that the removal of the patient’s spleen and Jones’ suppressed immune system from the drugs used to treat his psoriasis would have placed him at a higher risk.

The consultant described the infection as “extremely rare” and one which affected 0.5-1 person per million population.

“It’s a very progressive bug which has a 33% mortality rate once it enters the bloodstream,” said O’Neill.

Relatives of Jones expressed surprise that the deceased had never been advised to take penicillin supplements after having his spleen removed.

The inquest heard evidence that while such patients were in the past advised to take daily doses of penicillin, it was nowadays left to the patient’s own preference after two years.

In reply to questions from Jones’ relatives, O’Neill said it was possible that the deceased might have stood a better chance of fighting the infection if he had been taking penicillin at the time.

A consultant physician at Connolly Hospital who treated the patient in the emergency department, Professor McDermott, said Jones had been experiencing vomiting, nausea, chills and diarrhoea while his face and limbs were discoloured and his limbs were cold.

McDermott said the symptoms were known markers for severe sepsis for which the patient was immediately treated with a range of drugs.

The inquest heard Jones had severe problems with his kidneys and liver and failed to respond to treatment.

McDermott said concern that Jones might have suffered some type of food poisoning from soup with one-week old meat that he had consumed turned out to be “a red herring.”

Returning a narrative verdict, Gallagher said Jones had died from sepsis which had resulted from an infection that had probably been transmitted by a family pet.

The coroner also noted the removal of the patient’s spleen and the drugs to treat his psoriasis which would impact his immune system were risk factors.

Offering her condolences to Jones’ relatives, Gallagher said she could only imagine the shock they experienced at how a man in the prime of his life died “within the matter of hours.”

The coroner said she would make no specific recommendations but would issue general advice for people to practise good hygiene around pets, particularly if they had cuts or broken skin.