Posted on 02/15/2011 10:22:10 AM PST by Red Badger
Millions of pads, swabs recalled because of same bacteria that killed 2-year-old boy
The parents of a 2-year-old Houston boy who died from a rare infection are suing makers of recalled alcohol prep products, claiming contaminated wipes and swabs transmitted bacteria that caused his fatal case of meningitis.
Sandra and Shanoop Kothari say their lively, dark-eyed toddler, Harrison, was recovering just fine from surgery to remove a benign cyst from near his brain and spinal cord last fall. But the day before he was set to be discharged after a week's stay, he developed a sudden and severe infection that worsened rapidly, causing multi-organ failure that led to Harrison’s death on Dec. 1, 2010.
Cultures showed he succumbed to acute bacterial meningitis caused by Bacillus cereus, bacteria typically found in rare food poisoning outbreaks, but not in hospital infections.
“They had no explanation as to how he contracted it,” said Sandra Kothari, 37, Harrison’s mother. “They know it’s rare in the hospital.”
Rare bacteria detected For more than a month, the family grieved without knowing the cause of their loss. Then, on Jan. 5, a relative saw a notice posted online by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. All lots of alcohol prep wipes, perhaps tens of millions of swabs and pads manufactured by the Triad Group, a Wisconsin medical product supplier, were being recalled.
The reason? Potential contamination with Bacillus cereus.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Sandra and Shanoop Kothari of Houston hold a photo of their two children, Hannah and Harrison. After a routine surgery for a benign cyst, Harrison Kothari, 2, died last year of bacterial meningitis caused by Bacillus cereus, a rare bacterium that was later linked to the recall of millions of alcohol prep wipes.
Wow, this is really bad. How did that much bacteria survive on the alcohol wipes? I have some in my medicine cabinet - I never knew any were recalled. I am so very sorry for this family. I hope everyone checks their supply and throws out anything tainted.
We are sitting ducks for poorly prepared medical stuff, especially these things that Are used post surgery when we are weak and have open wounds.
Extremely sorry for their loss, but I didn’t know that bacteria could live in alcohol. Isn’t alcohol an antiseptic?
I was wondering the same thing. I thought alcohol killed everything. I also wonder if they will ever answer the question of how the contamination happened in the first place.
People looking for a reason to something unexplainable happening. I understand their pain, but sometime bad things happen without specific cause.
“....I thought alcohol killed everything....”
Nope, it doesn’t. I think I’ll research this. My hospital is heavy into the hand sanitizer stuff; it is part of protocol as a time saver. It is not as effective as good hand washing.
The alcohol may not kill everything, and the stuff that survives is much more virulent.
“People looking for a reason to something unexplainable happening. I understand their pain, but sometime bad things happen without specific cause.”
Read the story; the baby died from a bacteria found in the wipes. A bacteria not normally found in hospitals. Also a bacteria for which the wipes were being recalled.
Unfortunately a lawsuit won’t bring their baby back.
Alcohol doesn’t kill everything...............
Wrong answer. There is a specific cause. The question is how was this child exposed to that cause? If the exposure is due to a fault in a product or its misuse, then there is a party responsible for the death.
From 1999
Abstract
From September 1990 to October 1990, 15 patients who were admitted to four different departments of the National Taiwan University Hospital, including nine patients in the emergency department, three in the hematology/oncology ward, two in the surgical intensive care unit, and one in a pediatric ward, were found to have positive blood (14 patients) or pleural effusion (1 patient) cultures for Bacillus cereus. After extensive surveillance cultures, 19 additional isolates of B. cereus were recovered from 70% ethyl alcohol that had been used as a skin disinfectant (14 isolates from different locations in the hospital) and from 95% ethyl alcohol (5 isolates from five alcohol tanks in the pharmacy department), and 10 isolates were recovered from 95% ethyl alcohol from the factory which supplied the alcohol to the hospital. In addition to these 44 isolates of B. cereus, 12 epidemiologically unrelated B. cereus isolates, one Bacillus sphaericus isolate from a blood specimen from a patient seen in May 1990, and two B. sphaericus isolates from 95% alcohol in the liquor factory were also studied for their microbiological relatedness. Among these isolates, antibiotypes were determined by using the disk diffusion method and the E test, biotypes were created with the results of the Vitek Bacillus Biochemical Card test, and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) patterns were generated by arbitrarily primed PCR. Two clones of the 15 B. cereus isolates recovered from patients were identified (clone A from 2 patients and clone B from 13 patients), and all 29 isolates of B. cereus recovered from 70 or 95% ethyl alcohol in the hospital or in the factory belonged to clone B. The antibiotype and RAPD pattern of the B. sphaericus isolate from the patient were different from those of isolates from the factory. Our data show that the pseudoepidemic was caused by a clone (clone B) of B. cereus from contaminated 70% ethyl alcohol used in the hospital, which we successfully traced to preexisting contaminated 95% ethyl alcohol from the supplier, and by another clone (clone A) without an identifiable source.
I would think that a match between the rare bacteria that killed the child and the rare bacteria that was in the contaminated swabs could be DNA tested to see if they are the same.............
This particular bacteria is a spore reproducer, more like a fungus than an animal or plant. That is why alcohol didn’t kill it...........
Alcohol won't kill Clostridium spores either, that cause C. diff. diarrhea, or botulism, or tetanus.
Note the swabs and pads, which are NOT soaked in alcohol, are part of the recall along with the wipes.
A food poison-infected worker (with septic hands) loading a packaging machine is a possible vector for the bacteria to contaminate SOME of the ‘sterile’ materials, necessitating a total recall.
It is a spore forming bacteria, so if the sterilizer didn’t run hot enough or long enough to kill the spores, that is another vector. Alcohol for sure kills the bacteria, but perhaps not all the spores, and perhaps the dry pads and swaps were spore-contaminated.
B. cereus is quite common in the environment. B. cereus is a gut bacteria for virtually all of us, meaning that if you cultured what grows normally in your intestines, only the rare person would not have ANY of these in their gut. The problem for this young fellow is that his surgical wound became infected. And due to the nature of the surgery it progressed to meningitis.
Lastly, this bacterium is a common soil bacteria. Pets, siblings, parents and friends are ALSO a likely source of contamination.
Last month they threw out all of our alcohol wipes and replaced them with another brand due to bacteria. My guess is he could have been exposed when they used it to clean a hep well before flushing it or using it to push meds.
Well there goes that theory. So the bacteria that killed that kid lived in alcohol? Will have to rethink my first aid kit. Maybe some diluted bleach instead? On injuries?
Alcohol does not kill everything. One alcohol-resistant organism that comes to mind is Cryptosporidium. It is also bleach-resistant. It is a common cause of diarrhea among children (its resistant properties make it difficult to kill in day care settings). Crypto is killed by hydrogen peroxide.
This was a RARE bacteria, not normally encountered in everyday life, even in a hospital.
Alcohol is very good for killing common bacteria, in a 60-70% dilution with water.
Hydrogen peroxide is too.....
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.