Posted on 01/22/2006 9:01:44 AM PST by WestTexasWend
ORLANDO, Fla. (KRT) - Claudia Mejia checked into the hospital April 28 and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. But then things went terribly wrong.
While in Orlando Regional South Seminole Hospital, she contracted a "flesh-eating" bacteria, and 12 days later doctors amputated both her arms and her legs to save her life.
Now, Mejia, 24, of Sanford, Fla., has begun a legal battle. She is not asking for money. Right now, her lawyers are demanding that Orlando Regional Healthcare System Inc., which operates the Longwood, Fla., hospital, release information about other victims of the same bacteria.
The company has refused, citing patient privacy.
"This is a very tragic situation," said Anne Peach, ORHS's vice president of nursing.
More than 200 cases of the aggressive streptococcal infection, which is resistant to antibiotics, are reported annually in Florida, according to the state Health Department.
Mejia was in her lawyer's office in Orlando on Friday with her husband Timothy B. Edwards, 33, son Jorge Mejia, 7, and baby Matthew, 8 months. While the baby sat squirming in her husband's lap, Mejia caressed the boy's head with what is left of her right arm.
"Everything has turned difficult for me," she said. She cannot change her son's diapers, she said. She cannot play with her children. She cannot bathe herself.
"I want to walk on my own," she said. "I want to take care of my kids."
Mejia said she does not know how she got the infection, but, according to the suit, it had to have been at South Seminole Hospital.
She gave birth to Matthew with no problems.
"They told me everything was normal," Mejia said.
Then a rash appeared and she had severe pain in her belly.
The rash, the medical staff told her, was a possible allergic reaction to the sheets, and the stomach pain was normal for someone who'd just given birth, her husband said.
Two days later, though, her condition turned critical. She was moved to intensive care. Soon after, doctors performed a hysterectomy.
A few days later, they transferred her to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando.
According to her medical records, Mejia suffered not just the infection, she went into shock and her kidneys began to shut down. Gangrene set in.
Twelve days after she gave birth, doctors amputated her arms and legs.
"They gave her a choice of either dying or getting her limbs amputated," said her husband, a manager at Target in Lake Mary, Fla.
All told, Mejia was in the hospital more than three months. She's now at home in Sanford, where she has a remote-controlled wheelchair. She has artificial legs, as well, but she has the strength to walk on them for only about 30 minutes, her husband said.
Mejia sued in state Circuit Court in Sanford Jan. 13, asking a judge to order Orlando Regional to release records disclosing any other "adverse medical incidents" related to flesh-eating bacteria dating before her discharge Aug. 4.
"We want an answer to this: What happened to me?" Mejia said.
Her lawyer, E. Clay Parker, would not say whether he had already identified other people who contracted the infection at South Seminole.
In a letter last month, ORHS lawyer Jennings L. Hurt III said Mejia could not have records involving other patients. Despite a constitutional amendment requiring their disclosure, Hurt wrote, state lawmakers have yet to pass enabling legislation.
My husband's minor elbow surgery turned into a nightmare when he got it.
10 additional surgeries and 42 days in the hospital.
Much better outcome for him than this poor woman...thank goodness.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3867/is_200311/ai_n9325078
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3867/is_200409/ai_n9453467
Wasn't there an outbreak of this in Ecuador or one other South American country? I may have this confused with the one in Hati a couple of decades ago.
Just a word to the wise, you do not have to have been in a medical setting to catch Strep A. My father-in-law thought he was having gout in his foot. It wasn't; it was Strep A. He lost a section of the top part of his foot which was repaired with plastic surgery, and he almost lost his life. He was admitted to a hospital within days of onset. It was finally brought under control in week 3. No one is sure how it started. They theorize an insect bite became infected.
bump
My understanding of necrotizing fasciitis is that it responds well to antibiotics if they are given early. This is where the hospital needs to explain why this wasn't diagnosed earlier or, why it wasn't suspected and treated with antibiotics just as a precaution.
This is much different than CA-MRSA which is a super staph bug that is resistant to antibiotics and kills one in four who get a severe case. The problem with CA-MRSA is that by time they identify the bug, it's too late for the patient.
Actually, necrotizing fasciitis does not respond well to abx, it is difficult to get good levels in the devitalized (dead) tissues. Primary treatment is surgical to remove the dead tissue, then antibiotics can be given. Usually a large amount of tissue has to be removed.
On the other hand, resistant staph is always suspected in hospital infections, and treatment is begun in most cases before the cultures are even back. This infection is often cured with appropriate treatment, the exception is in the patient that is already morbidly ill or has a compromised immune system.
There are more abx in the pipeline, one was recently released.
Actually a bug called VRE or vancomycin resistant enterococcus worries me more. MRSA has been around for years, and when resistant to vancomycin (which is becoming more common) it can usually be treated with a combination of drugs
Every hospital carefully tracks the antibiotic resistance in their institution, so initial treatment of infection varies widely based on what bugs you have growing in your hospital.
---Very sad indeed. My heart goes out to her.
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