Gardener 'lucky but unlucky'

BY PAT VELTKAMP SMITH

Benita Van Den Arend says she feels two things – lucky to be alive but unlucky to have less than half the strength and energy she had five years ago.

In 2004, Mrs van den Arend, of Invercargill, contracted Legionella, the prelude to Legionnaires disease, after working with potting mix and manure in her garden.

"People will say 'well, you're five years older' and that's true. But I feel more than that. I don't have half the get-up-and-go that I had before October 2004, when I contracted Legionella," she said.

An avid gardener, Mrs van den Arend, then 60, cultivated a big garden at the front of her Tay St home.

She became ill after a Saturday in the garden, feeling dreadful, short of breath and vomiting so much that she went to the doctor on the following Tuesday.

Her GP's diagnosis of flu was overturned a week later when the former Southland Hospital physiotherapy aide was admitted to hospital with what appeared to be pneumonia.

While she was in hospital a doctor asked her what she did and Mrs van den Arend said she liked gardening and they chatted about her rose beds and hanging baskets.

Then the conversation shifted to potting mix and manure. The doctor did tests and found she had Legionella.

She spent another week in hospital and was given strong antibiotics but it was another three weeks of being sick before she could eat again.

Late last year the Canterbury District Health Board and Public Health division issued another warning advising gardeners to take care when opening bags of potting mix or handling compost, after being notified of five cases of Legionnaires disease in the region.

"When I heard of the sickness of others and then the death of one man, it brought it all back. I remember feeling so awful I thought I would die. I thought I must have meningitis or something; no pain, just so sick."

Mrs van den Arend said she'd never use potting mix again.

She has since shifted to Iona Court and continues to garden.

Southlanders had become casual about animal products, she said. "Everyone uses blood and bone and the like on gardens. We don't think about it."

After her story appeared in The Southland Times five years ago, Mrs van den Arend received several calls from others who said they too had "felt crook" after handling similar potting mixes and manures.

But most made the connection only after reading her story.

"Everyone thinks 'this won't happen to me'. I thought like that. And then it did happen and it nearly took my life and I am living with the after-effects of that still."

Life has gone on for Mrs van den Arend and her husband Mike.

They have downsized their home and garden to leave more time for their family and nine grandchildren.

"You need strength and energy to enjoy children and gardening, and walking. I just wish I had more, had what I had before that (sickness) happened," Mrs van den Arend said.

- © Fairfax NZ News