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Hospital Acquired Infections!!!!!

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bigbee13

Guest
What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

This all started in December of last year my wife was just getting ready to graduate from nursing school and she was hired by the training hospital. During her premployment physical the doctor said she had a hernia and it had to be repaired before she could start work. My wife is a healthy be it a little overweight 32 year old. On December 22 she had the surgery in the same day surgery unit of our local hospital. Doctor told me all went well he put a large piece of mesh to strengthen the abdonmen however she needed to stay a few days to make sure drainage was minimal. She had 2 jp drains. the next day the doctor and nurse came in to change the dressing and check the incision and neither of them had gloves on. The 24th doctor removed one drain and still no gloves. on the 25th doctor removed the 2nd drain and again no gloves. She went home on the 25th.

The day she came home she was running a sleight fever and for the next 3 days the fever got worse along with nausia, redness around the incision and necrotic tissue. I took her to her doctor and he checked and advised the incision was fine she just had the flu. Doctor prescribed antibiotics.

3 days went by and the fever which eased up for about a day or 2 was now back along with some drainage from the incision. We went to the surgeon and he checked her out he had no gloves on and proceeded to get a syringe(was steryl) inserted into the abdomen and drained a full syringe of fluid he then removed the syringe and squirted the fluid in the sink. He then reinserted the syringe and drained more fluid he proceeded to do this 2 more times. He then prescribed a different antibiotic. When we asked about the necrotic he said it will be fine.

She was a little better for a few days when the fever was back(every time the fever has been between 101 to 103). She now had more drainage which would soak her dressing every 3 to 4 hours. The surgeon was not in so I took her to the ER. The ER doctor Said the incison looked ok even though it had drainage and was looking like it was pushing outward. Her blood work came back with white count over 17000. ER doctor gave a shot for nausia and a IV of antibiotics and She was sent home. That night she felt worse and the drainage got worse by the morning it was filling her dressing in 30 to 40 min. With the dressing off the drainage was just running out. I took her back to the ER and the same ER doctor was still there. He called the surgeon and when the surgeon got there he said enough fooling around they were going to operate again. The next morning she had the second surgery and all went well he said. He said he cleaned everthing up and got rid of the dead tissue. That night she started to spike a fever again. With this surgery they finaly did a culture from the incision. The next afternoon the surgeon came in and advised us that she had contracted MRSA. They would have to surgery the next day to remove the mesh. The next day the 3rd surgery was done and the mesh was removed. She had 5 retention suchers and she would have to heal inside out. That afternoon an Infectious doctor was in and advised that she had also contracted Pseudomonis. She was in the hospital for 3 weeks and than had 4 weeks of IV antibiotics at home. The surgeon advised that the mesh will never be able to put back in and if she gets a hernia again she will have to have complet abdominal wall reconstruction and she would not be able to perform her duties as the type of nurse that she is now. She could still be a nurse just not the type of nurse she went to school to become. This would be due to the restrictions she would have. She is a nurse now however she has to be sooooo carefull with everything she does. She is afraid at times to pick up her kids as she has to be so carefull not to pick them up wrong. We have consulted an attorney however it has been almost 5 months and the hospital still has not sent the medical records.

I guess I am just looking for some words of wisdom and your thoughts on this matter and how it all went. Any and all information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Brian ( a concerned husband)
 


ellencee

Senior Member
bigbee13
I know you want to hear that MRSA infections result from not using gloves or from negligence. Unfortunately, I can not do that.

MRSA is the result of over-use of antibiotics and excessive attempts to sterilize everything related to surgery or invasive procedures.

MRSA is here to stay and it will cause many, many problems for just as many people.

Later today, I'll post some information that I have and anticipate your response to any areas of concern.

EC
 

ellencee

Senior Member
bigbee13
Let's look at this situation from a failure to recognize symptoms of MRSA infection and failure to treat. Please tell me what medications your wife was on prior to her surgery and during the post-op period (both).
Thanks,
EC
 
B

bigbee13

Guest
I am not trying to be smart with this first part of the response however my wife is a nurse and she knows about MRSA. The whole issue is not just the MRSA she also contracted Pseudomonis(which is not from too much atibiotics). I do not mean to sound like a smart a@@ I stated about not wearing gloves as to point out that the hospital and the doctor does not follow steril procedures. Also that both the hospital and the doctor do not follow steril procedurs on a cosistant basis. Not following procedures is part of the reason for such a outbreak of the infections along with giving way too much antibiotics which makes the bug become immune to those antibiotics. I understand and so does my wife that in many cases Infections after surgery happen no matter what. What we are looking at are procedures that are not followed, 2 different infections(hospital acquired), blowing everthing off as if it was just the flu, and an outcome that will affect her for the rest of her life.

Ok, as far as the medications. She was not on anything prior to the first surgery. When she came home the first time only had a script for pain medication which did not get as wife has high threshold for pain. the first doctor gave her Avelox. Then when she went to the surgeon he gave her Tequin. When she went to to ER the ER doctor gave an IV of Tequin. She also had Tequin after the second operation. The rest of the antibiotics came after the last operation and she already had the 2 infections and was getting both IV and oral antibiotics.

Just one more thing about MRSA, you state that you can not say that you can get MRSA from not wearing gloves or from negligence, can you answer this one,(please do not think I am being a smart A@@, just trying to hit all avenues). A nurse and or doctor goes into patient A's room, this person has MRSA, both the nurse and doctor are not wearing gloves, they leave and go into patient B's room they do not wash thier hands or put on gloves and change B's dressing and leave. Now think of the same scenerio where they change gloves and wash hands. Which scenerio do you think patient B is going to get MRSA? What I am stating is that you have to follow procedures. Again I am not trying to sound or be smart.

Thank you
 

ellencee

Senior Member
bigbee13
Sure, you are trying to be a smart*** and your wife is either a nursing student who did not graduate because of her illness or a graduate nurse with little to no experience. Therefore, I think it would be best for you to consult with a medmal attorney in your area at your earliest opportunity.

Not wearing gloves, washing hands, etc. is against the standards of care; however, you are looking for damages that would not have occurred except for an as yet unidentified act of negligence that was the proximate cause of the damages. There are numerous variables and numerous clinical aspects that have to be investigated.

Best wishes,
EC
 
B

bigbee13

Guest
I was not trying to be a smart A@@ however just to respond to your little comment. My wife graduated top of her class and does know what she is talking about when it comes to nursing. She is not a gn but rather an RN and comments like yours without knowing anything about her except the few comments that I wrote are pathetic. The whole picture that I was trying to paint was that as a entire entity the hospital with its staff does not follow procedures set forth by JCAHO and OSHA. We are not looking for damages that occured because of a unidentified act of neglegence. We are looking to stop a hospital from adminstering care without regard to thier patients. They do not follow the proper guidelines that are implemented as "STANDARD CARE". Any and All patients with these types of infections have a Higher standard of care along with different guidelines set by JCAHO and OSHA. Hand washing and wearing gloves is the number 1 reason for transferring these infections. At the hospital my wife works along with many others if these rules are not followed you get repremanded and could be terminated. I am not saying that by doing this this will eliminate MRSA because it will not we know that is not the case, just saying that following the rules will help controll it.
 
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bigbee13

Guest
Sorry Children hit the button.

to go on, I notice that you have not one time said anything about the Pseudomonis, what about that one...

As far as the case if you would have read the entire thread you would see that we have an attorney allready and just waiting on the medical records as the hospital will not cooperate. If we would have known the nickname the hospital has gained in the last 2 years we would have never went there.

Finally if you believe that medical staff washing thier hands and wearing gloves when coming in contact with bodily fluids is not important!!!!!!!!!!
I feel sorry for you and I hope you never have to be hospitlized for anything serious or have any type of surgery.

I will let you know how it all turns out by the way, I was never trying to be a smarta@@ however you were!!!!!
 

gryndor

Member
bigbee13 said:
I was not trying to be a smart A@@ however just to respond to your little comment. My wife graduated top of her class and does know what she is talking about when it comes to nursing. She is not a gn but rather an RN and comments like yours without knowing anything about her except the few comments that I wrote are pathetic.
BigBee, you will get no genuine help here if you start attacking the respondents. The quotes in bold indicate you are clearly developing an attitude, and it won't be well received.

Word to the Wise,
Gryn
 
B

bigbee13

Guest
Gryndor

In my first reply to Ellencee I stated that my comments were not trying to be a smarta@@ and I repeated that a few times. I did not want to sound like I was being smart I was just trying to state some points. Ellencee stated that I was being a smarta@@ and that my wife did not graduate or was just a graduate nurse, that is why I replied the way that I did. If the respondents can reply that way when it was stated that I was not trying to be smart than why should I let them talk that way to me. I was not trying to be rude or ignorrant and even stated so if they took it that way it is not my fault. I know it is hard when your reading posts because there is only the way the words are written to take them however I stated a few times that I was not trying to be smart they took it that way and responded with the first comments. By the way this is no way trying to be offensive to you as I know you are only trying to give me advice for future posts so that I will get responses. This should hold true for the respondents also...

thank you though for the thoughts
 

Supmom810

Member
Bigbee13,
I wouldn't worry about it. If you read through any of EC's post, you will see that is just the way she is. She often jumps to the defense of her medical collegues and automatically defends their actions, whether they are right or wrong. Just because the poster does not have a medical degree, she trys to intimidate them with her knowledge or in my case, lack of it. Be patient, maybe IAAL or others will come along with their opinions. And remember, that's all that they are, opinions. Some with merit, some without. Hope your wife is feeling better soon and your attorney helps you get the answers you are looking for.
Take care.
 

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