Great Britain: Cleaning boss hit by MRSA (Hospital infects it's own during surgery)

The Sun (U.K.) ^ | January 2, 2006 | ANDY RUSSELL

[Stoat]

EXCLUSIVE

Cleaning boss hit by MRSA

Crippled for life ... devastated ex-boss Norman
Picture: PETER LOMAS
 

By ANDY RUSSELL

 A FORMER NHS cleaning supervisor has lost a leg — after catching the deadly MRSA superbug in his own hospital.

Dad-of-two Norman Turner, 42, contracted the disease while recovering from a routine operation to replace an artery.

Last night he slammed doctors, nurses and cleaning staff at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, Lancashire, for “appalling” standards of hygiene.

Norman, who worked for 15 years at the hospital — where he helped to train staff to combat MRSA — said: “I was perfectly healthy and strong when I went into hospital and expected to make a full recovery.

“Instead I have been disabled for the rest of my life. I am still in shock, devastated. I came close to dying in intensive care — all because of MRSA.

“The attitude of staff towards cleanliness seems to have dropped to a worrying level.”

Norman spoke out just days after watchdogs found that hygiene guidelines were still being breached at the three main hospitals in the area.


 

'Dirty' ... Blackburn Royal Infirmary
 

He had an artificial artery inserted two months after illness forced him to give up his job — but became seriously ill and slipped into a coma. His left leg had to be amputated at the hip.

Norman, of, Darwen, Lancs, told doctors he was anxious about the risk of MRSA — but was reassured that his op had a 95 per cent success rate.

He still has MRSA but is being cared for at a nursing home. His sister Lana Scott, a nurse at the home, said: “We really thought he was going to die.

“He was most worried about getting MRSA but we never thought he would end up like this.”

Hospital inspector Dennis Wilcock, of the Patient and Public Involvement Forum said: “There is still a long way to go at this hospital and this is just not acceptable. Cases like this just keep arising and the number is going up. Lessons have not been learnt.

“It is up to the trust to raise standards and to do so quickly.”

A hospital spokeswoman said the amputation was necessary as “an emergency life-saving procedure”.

[Stoat]

MRSA

Information about MRSA for Healthcare Personnel CDC Infection Control in Healthcare

[vrwc0915]

Ahh the joys of socialists health care

[Cicero]

Ouch.

Well, I guess they'll just have to close down the hospital until they straighten this out. Oh, I forgot, the government can't close down a hospital operating under government sponsored health care, with government unions.

Especially not if it's a Labour government that is effectively a branch of the unions.

[VOA]

Ahh the joys of socialists health care

Socialized medicine really, really sucks.
But MRSA is problem even here in the USA.

I very nearly lost a leg when a doc F---ed up and gave me a steroid for
what was obviously a bacterial infection (cellulitis) of one of my legs.

I managed to get back to the hospital 24 hours later with a 103 degree fever,
a leg that had turned black/blue...and was just lucid enough to
see the same doctor's eyes turn into saucers when he saw my leg (and realized
his screw up).
It was cured in a week with probably about $10 of Keflex (antibiotic).
I still shudder to think of what could have happened...
amputation or death by sepsis.

[Paleo Conservative]

Last night he slammed doctors, nurses and cleaning staff at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, Lancashire, for “appalling” standards of hygiene.

I can't imagine having an operation in a hospital run by the British socialised medical system.

[vrwc0915]

I will never ever leave a loved one in the care at a hospital without watching over them and making sure that they are getting the right meds ect.

[Paul C. Jesup]

A FORMER NHS cleaning supervisor has lost a leg — after catching the deadly MRSA superbug in his own hospital.

This is poetic justice for doing a poor job while he worked there.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I'll bet he takes his job much more seriously now.

[holden]

This juxtaposition was probably meant to leave us with the impression there was some type of poetic justice at work, but an even more likely scenario would involve not his personally-trained hospital cleaning crew, but either a doctor or nurse who had become lax with respect to hand-washing between patients for whatever reason (e.g., Oh, that just dries out my skin!).

Did a doctor or nurse call in the story to a favorite newspaper reporter?

HF

[Paul C. Jesup]

If a doctor or nurse don't wash their hands before surgery, there would be hell to pay, even in the UK. Washing hands before surgery is like the 11th Commandment in the medical community.

[SweetCaroline]

Ahh the joys of socialists health care

....trust me, this happens in many hospitals even here in the USA.

My husband had stints put in his aorta because of an Aneurysm and he contacted this infection. It took us a month after the operation to convince the doctors something was wrong and only then when they saw how swollen his groin was on one side.

They put him in the hospital and took a vial of the liquid , tested it and not more than 2 hours later it burst open spilling pus and blood all over the floor, wall and bed.

They rushed him into surgery and called me. When I got there I went to his room to pick up his belonging and they had the most inept person cleaning the room and one hour later they had another patient in the same bed.

Only by the grace of GOD did he survive, he was in surgery 7 hours.

All stints (3) had to be removed and veins taken from where ever they could find them. He is mobile now, but his legs remain numb and they will never get better but a least he is alive.

Needless to say we have changed doctors and hospitals. He goes for an MRI next week to see if he needs more surgery.

Still I'm so greatful because he is alive, this is a dangerous infection that many have not survived.

[Stultis]

QUICK! CALL "THE CLEANING LADY"!! (I think she has a day open as one of her clients recently passed on.)

[Sarajevo]

I very nearly lost a leg when a doc F---ed up and gave me a steroid for what was obviously a bacterial infection (cellulitis) of one of my legs.

HE DID WHAT? My starz! I'm only a Paramedic, and I can diagnose and treat cellulitis. I hope you beat the fecal matter out of that (supposed)Doctor, and then litigated for everything he owned. I don't know what kind of "Doctor" would prescribe a steroid for a bacterial infection, especially for an infection that was treated by a first generation cephalosporin. D*mn, this pi$$es me off!

[American Vet Repairman]

"Ahh the joys of socialists health care"

It is not an issue of socialism. It is an issue of hygene. I have worked in capitalistic hospitals that have horrible MRSA rates. And I have worked for government facilities that have horrible MRSA rates. Poor hospital cleanliness and understaffing are major evidenced based factors that contribute to growing MRSA rates.

[American Vet Repairman]

"If a doctor or nurse don't wash their hands before surgery, there would be hell to pay, even in the UK."

I worked on a floor that had great hygene practices by staff- yet still had a horrible MRSA rate. Infection control cultured the beds and mattressess and MRSA was everywhere. We had a high rate since the place was filthy and the standard of hygene care was being dictated by some dumbass drunks with mops.

[streetpreacher]

Oh crap! I work in shipping & receiving at a hospital. Some lady in another department tried to bring me some office chairs that were exposed to MRSA patients in order to be disposed of. She said they were okay because they had been sprayed with Virex. I told her no thanks but I had no idea that it was this bad.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Only a couple of days ago, I heard a call-in lawyer talk show in San Fran. The lawyer (can't remember his name) who hosts the show is very helpful. One of his callers was a Lt. Colonel in the Army stationed here in the Bay Area. His wife had recently given birth to their fourth child and got a staph infection while in the local civilian hospital. She had a 107 fever and now has a permanently scarred heart among other ailments. The Army is not accepting responsibility for her health care and is insisting that this is a case of malpractice by the hospital. That sounds really harsh by the Army against a Desert Storm vet. The poor Lt. Col. is having a hard time making ends meet in the Bay Area, his wife is seriously ill due to the sanitary conditions in the hospital and the Army won't help.

The talk show host is going to have a colleague of his look into the medical records to see if they have a case.

[Dick Vomer]

"I'm only a Paramedic, and I can diagnose and treat cellulitis."

right..... so if somebody comes up to you with a "rash" on their legs you can "see" if it's cellulitis.....

you know how this patient presented to this doctor?, what his history of present illness was, you know if this is just a "rash" that should be treated with a broad spectrum antibiotic...that's just funny. That's what I love about looking back once you know the result. Try doing it going forward... then tell somebody to beat the feces out of you and of course.....sue you.

Your also sure this was a cellulitis and not a rash from an indolent systemic infection somewhere else on his body. Cause most paramedics know about the differential diagnosis for presentation of a simple "rash".

I don't know what this patient had, but second guessing somebody without knowing anything about the case is the sign of somebody that knows a little but pretends he knows a lot.

I'm sure you like ER docs second guessing your treatment of CHF with albuterol for "wheezing" instead of just giving lasix...cause you confused the rales and the "cardiac wheeze" with COPD or reactive airway disease...

by the way... MRSA is the result of overpresribing antibiotics for simple little "rashes"... bad things happen in medicine. Even routine surgery can have bad results. For all the others out there , socialized medicine may be bad, but MRSA from in hospital infections is much more common than you think.

What's really interesting to note is that this guy is at a "nursing home".. A recent study showed very high carrier status from nasal swabs of nursing home staff. This feller just may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire...... yikes!!!!!

[yevgenie]

Without knowing the details of the case, it might just be that the doc believed it to be an allergic reaction or dermatitis rather than cellulitis. In that case a steroid would be the appropriate treatment.

Of course, I cannot pretend to know exactly what happened and am forced to conjecture.

(Please note than I mean no offense to the fellow FReeper who endured the harrowing experience!)