Posted on 12/18/2008 8:36:29 PM PST by 60Gunner
Ping
That’s what my mom taught me.
Thanks for the excellent post. Common sense and rational thought becoming a rarity these days.
Good job and thank you for your effort. I will need to read it in more depth later.
I am a MRSA survivor, 2 months in a Seattle hospital, where I contracted the junk during heart surgery/stroke. It was hell...... but here I am. ;>)
My ‘guess’ is that I was infected by two separate tenured nurses of two separate occasions when they touched my open chest wound with their bare hands.
I am now a very demanding patient. I don’t care what they say or how long they’ve been around, when it comes to cleanliness, they will do it my way or they’re fired.
I was in maintenance and didn't have usually have actual patient body contact but I learned real quick you watch where you place your hands near them. Gloves in a medical environment is the best protection and a mask if needed. I watched a housekeeper about go nuts after his leg got cut on a patients bed that had Staph. He was lucky. Getting a puncture is never fun.
Some moron where I worked placed an open safety pin in the garbage. Guess who got stuck? A year of free blood test followed.
Awesome post 60gunner!!
My wife and I both work at a hospital(she’s a nurse). We are always very aware of many of the things you spoke of. You laid it out nicely for everyone in a very understandable way.
“MRSA and Media Idiots: Here is Your Defense against BOTH!”
Thanks for posting!
Here's my problem with this event (Outside of Being sick as hell for about 8 months)
The gym I was a member of, had 17 cases of MRSA a month tied to it (on average for a period of 7 months). The gym told no one...the Health Department did nothing. The only way I found out the information I did was I had to go plant myself in the Health office downtown for 2 straight days.
I observe the above rules to the letter these days...NO MRSA since.
SO the question becomes....Don't you think some kind of public warning should be necessary?
From my point of view, the business hid some really important information while letting people run into this stuff unprepared. Does the business bear any responsibility?
My FIL died from a MRSA infection (post surgery.) When my husband had his hip replaced, his surgeon specifically gave orders that no one was to uncover the wound but himself, or his PA. He told my husband to raise a stink if any other hospital staff tried to uncover the incision site.
MRSA ping
Dear friend, you hit the nail on the head right there, particularly with regard to 'careless workers.' The simple acts of washing our hands before and after working with a patient and donning personal protection equipment when dealing with wounds is one thing; cleaning up after ourselves and properly disposing of soiled PPE is the follow-through to that swing, and it does not get done, sad to say, based on my own observations. Not only does that leave us wide-open to infection, it endangers our patients as well. I've nailed a few MDs, RNs and Techs for that totally unacceptable breach; I even QA'd a supervisor once. She gives me a dirty look whenever she is in my department, but she damn well washes her hands, too.
I just came home from the hospital last night after having back surgery. The hospital I was in had these hand pumps of Purell (?) on the walls in every patient room. I saw them all over pre-op and post-op as well. Every time a nurse or doctor went by one of them, they stuck their hands under and got a gop of goo, which I saw them spread all over their hands.
Now I know what they were doing and why, and feel much better about the care and treatment I received.
I've also been a caregiver now for 23 years. She became disabled {quad} a few months after we met at work. My wife's been lucky that she has had no infections from extended hospital stays including several surgeries. I do her home health myself with her so that helps matters considerably as well. When she goes to the hospital I go to and do most of the stuff she needs. That lessens the risk also.
I don't work in the nursing homes anymore I'm medically retired and that helps too. The House Supervisor in the last place I worked que'd me in on who to be very, very, careful around. Blasted rules ya know. Can't have workers knowing a patient has a STD. Another risk was a patient with Inactive TB. It can become active any time.
uss america?
Yep the one now laying over 15,000 feet under the sea. I was a snipe and Fire Fighter from 77-80 onboard her.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.