Posted on 01/01/2006 7:05:17 PM PST by Stoat
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.
I can't imagine having an operation in a hospital run by the British socialised medical system.
This is poetic justice for doing a poor job while he worked there.
I'll bet he takes his job much more seriously now.
Did a doctor or nurse call in the story to a favorite newspaper reporter?
HF
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.
....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.
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!
"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.
"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.
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.
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.
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!!!!!
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!)
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