Young traveller's infected tooth led to tragedy

A young Albany man on his OE has died in a Dutch hospital after developing a tooth infection and now his family are demanding answers.

John "Stormy" Salkeld, aged 30, contracted the rare bug necrotising fascitis while in Rotterdam's St Clara Ziekenhuis hospital and died from complications on December 18.

The Dutch national health authority and police were carrying out independent inquiries into Mr Salkeld's death because of the rarity of his condition, and to determine exactly what micro-organisms or bacteria were involved.

His distraught mother, Bonnie, has demanded answers. She claims he was denied treatment because he did not have medical insurance.

But this was denied last night by the director of the hospital, Dr Dolf Oostrum, who said hospital policy was to treat everyone regardless of whether they had medical insurance.

"We have to treat anybody, and we do so. It has nothing to do with being insured or not."

Dr Oostrum said the hospital had undertaken its own investigation.

Mrs Salkeld, 54, travelled to Holland soon after her son went into hospital and found him in shock and barely able to walk, speak or swallow.

She said he was transferred from St Clara to the Academisch Ziekenhuis hospital in Nijmegen, where he underwent three major operations.

But the infection had spread throughout his body and he was declared brain dead a week later.

Back in Auckland last night, Mrs Salkeld wept as she recalled the horror of watching her son die.

Surrounded by flowers from wellwishers, including members of her son's former rugby club, East Coast Bays, she said: "I cannot believe that a civilised country like Holland could treat my son this way.

"He went into hospital with a tooth abscess and came out in a wooden box. I just hope other young people travelling on their OE realise how important it is to have insurance cover."

The head of the Department of Oral and Maxio Facial Surgery at the Nijmegen hospital, Professor Paul Stoelinga, said he believed St Clara treated Mr Salkeld correctly.

He said Mr Salkeld was transferred because St Clara did not have the specialty intensive-care facilities to treat him.

Mr Salkeld had contracted necrotising fascitis, a rare life-threatening infection that developed rapidly and had a 50 per cent mortality rate.

The infection spread to Mr Salkeld's neck and chest tissue. He then developed "septic shock," at which point he became "basically unsavable."

"At the start, we thought he would make it because he was strong and healthy. But he had the most unfortunate sequence of events that could happen to him," Professor Stoelinga said.

"This thing happens very occasionally, thank god.

"It was so frustrating to see this young man fight for his life when there was very little we could do. I felt very sorry about it, particularly because he was just visiting."

Professor Stoelinga also confirmed that every foreigner in trouble received free treatment.