Posted on 03/04/2007 6:18:03 AM PST by Dysart
Terrible story!
"Finally we cultured her and found she was the carrier."
I don't understand being a "carrier" here.
Are you saying she was a carrier (i.e., infection is not active but is present) but it wasn't actively infecting her heart tissues until the surgery put it there?
I know exactly what you mean. I have the same problem happening with my mother.
Staphylococcus aureus is part of the bodies normal flora,and a lot of people have picked up MRSA just out in public. A person just doesn't fall over dead two weeks after surgery. There had to be some sign of infection say like a fever that was ignored that lead to sepsis.
My mother is on 'Vancomycin' drip every 48 hours. It MUST run for at least 120 min. every time.
I believe there should be greater transparency of information with regard to these sorts of events. As a consumer I'd like to have access to mortality rates, infection rates, etc. so I could make an informed choice of hospital/physician. However, there are those who say such a system will make it difficult for high-risk patients to receive treatment.
She's only getting a total of $739 per month to live on. It doesn't seem right that her husband was a Vietnam vet with 4 tours of duty to his credit earned that pension but it is denied her because she underwent what should have been a simple procedure and they KNEW there was a problem with their ventilation system in the operating rooms.
We've contacted our local senators and house reps and all we've heard thus far is that they're working on it. In the meantime she has lost her home to foreclosure and most of her belongings had to be sold.
Our country does not treat its veterans well.
We live in Pennsylvania. They sent my mother home with an infection and never told me she had it.
Probably not that much better...I'd say their estimates are off, and go with Pennsylvania's actual reported rates, although the article does point out that hospitals that require reporting are believed to have better rates.
It makes sense to me that requiring reporting will lower the incidence. It occurred to me after posting that the national average may include patients hospitalized multiple times per year, while PA is including infections per hospitalization. So that may account for some of the difference as well.
"The hospital knew they had a problem and still allowed surgeries to be performed. You've got to wonder why."
Hospitals are like the Airlines, you play the probabilities and hope you never have to pay off. OR's make big big bucks and if its not running the Docs go elsewhere. Follow the money it always leads to the truth.
My prayers are with you and your mother for her to be able to overcome this horrible infection. My sister spent the better part of a year in the hospital as a result of this thing.
Here is Pennsylvania, the hospitals voluntarily cooperated to report medical errors and hospital-sourced infections. In a single year, they attributed 32,000 deaths to those two causes --- this is only in Pennsylvania.
The nationwide numbers must be staggering.
Vancomycin can be a nephrotoxic antibiotic it usually comes in a 250ml bag so to run it at 125ml/hr is normal. The max rate that an IV is run is generally 150ml/hr, unless they are in acute renal failure is a diuretic faze.
What is amazing is that she caught this infection in the hospital and now she is back in the hospital for another week while they rip off her insurance company for an infection they caused.
If you took your car to a dealer and while they had it there , they rippd the fender off. That dealership would pay to put the fender back on. You go to the hospital and get sicker because of their problem ,and they just keep sending out the bills.
Yo go to a Doctor and he makes a mistake, then you have to go back and he charges you to rectify his mistake.
Hubby recently hospitalized. They allowed the IV apparatus to be used for no more than two days before being replaced. He was on intraveinous Cipro the entire time as well. Continued on with the Cipro for another week after release from the hospital.
Official protocol at this hospital. Two days!
That was good. How's he doing?
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