3 ms·

A year ago my mother went in for back surgery, a week after she had a sharp pain, and ended up with MRSA which had turned into sepsis. It damaged her heart a

A year ago my mother went in for back surgery, a week after she had a sharp pain, and ended up with MRSA which had turned into sepsis. It damaged her heart and in the end, after a two month fight led the ARDS and took her life. The hell this put her through was extremely real. Between the lack of solid contact precautions, doctors who think they are above them, the over-use of antibiotics which lead to this etc. this is a huge problem. The number of instances of MRSA are growing every year which is the scariest part of this. I can vividly remember my mother reading and recommending a book about the coming superbugs back in the 90's when MRSA was rare. It was quite ironic that this ended up killing her.

harshreality 14y ago
My condolences. Can someone explain, even if there are resistant pathogenic bacterial strains floating around, where the entrypoint for infection is? Operating rooms are cleanrooms, and after that, with good dressings on the wounds, bacteria should be prevented from entering. "Flesh eating bacteria" due to scratching is one thing; bacteria that gain a foothold through the GI tract is another; I understand how those infections get started. However, internal infections caused somehow by surgical wounds? Are surgical suite clean rooms not a low enough class and therefore not sterile enough? Is wound aftercare not good enough? Are surgical tools getting contaminated after sterilization but before the surgery? Maybe hospitals should be turned into high-class[1] (lower-effectiveness) cleanrooms. I realize laminar flow in such a chaotic environment is impossible, and of limited effectiveness if people are not gowned and so shed contamination all the time, but there could at least be an attempt to push some of the contamination to vents on the floor. How much would that increase costs? It wouldn't have to be entire hospitals, only the recovery wards. Other than that, a major initiative to clean up hospitals could be undertaken. Surfaces and floors and everything else commonly touched should be sterilized more often, to start with. Any area that sees a lot of patient turn-over is going to be heavily contaminated. Anyone who goes from room to room (doctors, nurses) should wear gloves before entering a room to avoid cross-contamination. Donning new gloves once in a room is not good enough; doorknobs, clipboards, light switches, etc. are all still subject to cross-contamination. Recent studies on hotel rooms made me never want to check into one again: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/11/07/marketplace-dirty-hotels.html http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/11/07/marketplace-d... http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=hotel-rooms-house-bountiful-bacteri-12-06-19 http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=hot... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanroom#Cleanroom_classifications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanroom#Cleanroom_classificat...
- aplusbi 14y ago
  Hospitals really can be that bad. People get sloppy if they aren't constantly reminded that they need to be vigilant. I have personally witnessed doctors open doors with bloody gloves and then interact with patients. http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/08/hospital-checklist-cut-infections-saved-lives/ http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/08/hospital-checklist-...
  - scarmig 14y ago
    The funny thing is (if by funny you mean absolutely horrific), some doctors and hospitals really dislike the idea of checklists. For a variety of reasons, but one suspects that the motivating concern is that it assumes it's possible for doctors to be utterly incompetent.
- wissler 14y ago
  As I said in a different comment, doctors can be exceedingly sloppy. There are no consequences. There's no clear evidentiary trail pointing back to the doctor (there could be -- but hospitals have no interest in that). And the worst thing is that we have a culture of sheep who treat doctors as if they are a kind of God. They aren't. Some of them are heroes, but some are worse than the average car mechanic.
wissler 14y ago
If a doctor didn't follow proper procedures and ended up spreading MSRA to your mother, then in effect that was negligent homicide. I think this happens all the time. I've seen it happen myself, where a doctor touches an open wound without having washed his hands first. But how often are doctors prosecuted for this kind of negligence? Something is very wrong with our medical system and it's worse than MSRA.

harshreality 14y ago

My condolences. Can someone explain, even if there are resistant pathogenic bacterial strains floating around, where the entrypoint for infection is? Operating rooms are cleanrooms, and after that, with good dressings on the wounds, bacteria should be prevented from entering. "Flesh eating bacteria" due to scratching is one thing; bacteria that gain a foothold through the GI tract is another; I understand how those infections get started. However, internal infections caused somehow by surgical wounds? Are surgical suite clean rooms not a low enough class and therefore not sterile enough? Is wound aftercare not good enough? Are surgical tools getting contaminated after sterilization but before the surgery? Maybe hospitals should be turned into high-class[1] (lower-effectiveness) cleanrooms. I realize laminar flow in such a chaotic environment is impossible, and of limited effectiveness if people are not gowned and so shed contamination all the time, but there could at least be an attempt to push some of the contamination to vents on the floor. How much would that increase costs? It wouldn't have to be entire hospitals, only the recovery wards. Other than that, a major initiative to clean up hospitals could be undertaken. Surfaces and floors and everything else commonly touched should be sterilized more often, to start with. Any area that sees a lot of patient turn-over is going to be heavily contaminated. Anyone who goes from room to room (doctors, nurses) should wear gloves before entering a room to avoid cross-contamination. Donning new gloves once in a room is not good enough; doorknobs, clipboards, light switches, etc. are all still subject to cross-contamination. Recent studies on hotel rooms made me never want to check into one again: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/11/07/marketplace-dirty-hotels.html http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/11/07/marketplace-d... http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=hotel-rooms-house-bountiful-bacteri-12-06-19 http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=hot... [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanroom#Cleanroom_classifications http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanroom#Cleanroom_classificat...

aplusbi 14y ago
Hospitals really can be that bad. People get sloppy if they aren't constantly reminded that they need to be vigilant. I have personally witnessed doctors open doors with bloody gloves and then interact with patients. http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/08/hospital-checklist-cut-infections-saved-lives/ http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/08/hospital-checklist-...
- scarmig 14y ago
  The funny thing is (if by funny you mean absolutely horrific), some doctors and hospitals really dislike the idea of checklists. For a variety of reasons, but one suspects that the motivating concern is that it assumes it's possible for doctors to be utterly incompetent.
wissler 14y ago
As I said in a different comment, doctors can be exceedingly sloppy. There are no consequences. There's no clear evidentiary trail pointing back to the doctor (there could be -- but hospitals have no interest in that). And the worst thing is that we have a culture of sheep who treat doctors as if they are a kind of God. They aren't. Some of them are heroes, but some are worse than the average car mechanic.

wissler 14y ago

If a doctor didn't follow proper procedures and ended up spreading MSRA to your mother, then in effect that was negligent homicide. I think this happens all the time. I've seen it happen myself, where a doctor touches an open wound without having washed his hands first. But how often are doctors prosecuted for this kind of negligence? Something is very wrong with our medical system and it's worse than MSRA.