Topic : 04/01 The Superbug

Last year I had a student come to me for an opinion. She had recently been to her doctor for a lesion on the inside of her thigh, they treated her for a spider bite, 4 days later she had a red, warm, lump about the size of a softball on her inner thigh where there had just been a red area about the size of a pee. I immediately sent her to ER because after hearing her story I knew this was just more than an infected spider bite. She was diagnosed with MRSA and had to be on IV antibiotics. We had to reassure the other students that they were not at risk since they did not actually touch the site. ( I didn't touch the site either, just examined it, but I washed my hands anyways just because of what I did see. ) While attending school she had 5 other break outs, each time landing her in the hospital for IV antibiotics. Pretty scary stuff if you do know or don't know what you are dealing with.

I have to agree with theRN that mentioned that doctors should be held acountable along with parents that demand an antibiotic everytime their child has the sniffles. I have worked in the medical field for over 11 years and have seen one too many parents that refuse to leave the office without a script for an antibiotic for their child that has the common cold. At the same time, I have seen doctors write a script and tell the patient that they are only to fill that script if their symptoms don't improve over the next few days..... HELLO?! That patient is going to get it filled as soon as they leave the office and take that antibiotic thinking that it is going to make them better no matter what. Now we are all paying the price. Some things are better left alone, even if it makes you miserable for a few days. Get over it and move on. Like I tell my kids, "if you aren't bleeding to death and it's a long way from your heart, you will survive, go play."

Debra

From the Dr. Phil preview on Monday and once in a news clip on Tuesday's Dr. Phil show about the "SuperBug", they referred to it as a "virus". MRSA is not a virus. It is a bacterium.

I wanted to post this becouse I am hoping it might help someone else.

My husband had a MOHS (a local surgery to remove a mole that is cancerous)

Since he had that, my husband has had huge "rashes" and he was being seen by an infectious des. dr AND a derm. dr.....I would sit up with him at night becouse he HURT from these rashes. I decided to keep a photo diary of his rash. The dr's said he had ezama or phosris and things like that. At one point we thought maybe he had herpes out of some kind. The ONLY thing that made the rash go away was for him to take 2000mg A DAY (this is an anti-biotic, usal does is around 200-250mg a day) The rash would almost heal up, he would run out of anti-bioatics and it would come back. I can not tell you how many times we sat in the dr's offices crying becouse they refused to belive the anti-biotic was working and therefore would not give him anymore. I would wrap his legs and arms, with gauze and ace bandages, and we did this for a little over a year. and I don't mean a little rash...my husbands wounds seept and ozzed and we took an hour every moring for him to shower and I would wrap him up, then he would sneak home so I could do it again at lunch, and then when he got home from work, and then before he went to bed. It took about $2500 a month for the supplies to keep his wraped up. We worked VERY HARD to keep his things seperate, and to have his wrapped up at all times so our kids didn't get exposed to this rash incase it was contagious. It was physically and emotionally exhausting. Then one morning, I got up and  this huge rash, that has been on his arms and legs, had spread all over him. My husbands face was litterly pealing off as he spoke. I rushed him to the ER (against his will of course) and they imedatly put him (and me) into isolation. They knew right away he was in trouble. The hospital did the bloodwork but also within 5 minutes had him on an IV anti-biotic. When the Dr came out to speak with me, we went over my husbands last year, and I showed the pictures of his rash, and how much anti-biotics he was on and all the things he was diagnosed with and the I will never forgot the dr looking at me and saying " if you waited even 2 more hours, your husband would have died" I tried to brush it off and the dr grapped my arm and said " i'm not kidding, you husband would have been dead.....and I am not sure we can save him at this point" In that 1 brief moment, I realized how really sick myhusband was.

He was diagnosed with MRSA and the new dr's said that they think he got a "regualr staph infection" from his dermotologist surgery, but becouse they didn't treat him correctly, he now has the Mrsa and Staph in his bloodstream.

To this day, my husband has not been able to totally get rid of his rash. and EVERY time it starts up, I worry if this will be the last one his body can fight off.

Remember- no matter what dr's tell you....they can be wrong! keep a diary, photos even (i took pictures of my husbands rash every week) and keep fighting. Sometimes, dr's get frustrated with you and treat you badly if you are to instistant...but remember...they go home at the end of the day..its you and your family that ends up picking up the pieces if they were wrong!

First off, I'm surprised that this is "news" in the US. In Canada and the UK, it has been a recognized issue in hospitals for nearly 4 years. In Canada, no patient is admitted to hospital without being screened and there are strict procedures for patients in isolation due to it.

Secondly, I'm shocked that no mention was made on the show of any of the other superbugs - VRSA, VRE, C-Diff. Yes, MRSA may be the most visible right now, but as a cancer patient who went through 2 years of chemo while fighting VRE, the threat to my life was very real. To me, to address the issue of superbugs and only mention one is extremely disturbing.

Finally, for Dr Phil to cut the doctor who also had MRSA off as he was explaining causes and actions, saying the audience was getting bored really shows that his focus has turned to sensationalization, rather than facts. I would suspect that the audience was riveted, not bored. Maybe because he expects people to respond only to him, he was confused that the attention was on someone else.

 Do people need to be concerned about all superbugs? Absolutely. Should everyone be asking their hospitals what measures are in place to address it and be pushing for both patient and hospital staff testing? Definitely. Would I be really scared if I had to go into a US hospital right now, even as a visitor? You bet.

Dear Dr. Phil,

Thank you so much for bringing this issue out in the open.  I am 43 years old and for the past 2 years I have been getting "staph" infections on my face.  This year alone I was in the hospital 6 times.  On Christmas Day I went into the hospital and they admitted me.  They ran a battery of tests and pumped me full of antibiotics. 

A "special disease doctor" came in my room took a look at my face, didn't say much and left.  He wasn't in my room more than 3 minutes.  I swear, and I have a witness.

I was so pumped up on Morphine because the pain is nothing I can begin to describe.  So being quite sedated I wasn't able to ask any questions.

But let's talk about the pain for a sec....people need to know that it's worse than child birth!  I have never been through anything like it.  It's like your face is on fire and while it's on fire, bugs are eating your flesh.  I was running a fever, sick to my stomach, etc.  just the worst kind of pain imaginable.

I still have not gotten any answers from the hospital except that it is "just a staph".  I don't get it!!!!!  I'm so scared every time I get a cut, or accidentally scratch myself.  And by the way.....each time I have an outbreak the worse it is.

I have requested my records/culture from the hospital and they have yet to send anything except the $16,000.00 bill.

Dr. Phil, please do more research on this.  I think you are going to find more secrets and a lot more of us out here with this "mysterious staph".

Thanks for Listening!

Sincerely,

Scared and Frustrated!

I found the show very interesting today.  I too have a Staph infection story that is not extremely common (less than 3% of the population of breastfeeding moms).  I contracted a terrible Staph infection in my breast while in the hospital after having my son.  I was breastfeeding my child and was told the Staph entered through my cracked nipples.  I had a huge lump in my breast and developed Mastitis that abscessed a few weeks later.  I was admitted to the hospital 4 weeks after my son was born for IV antibiotics and had the abscess surgically drained.  The doctor’s believed I had MRSA and kept me in the hospital for four days treating me and growing the culture.  Fortunately, I only had a severe Staph infection and it was not MRSA.  I continued to have trouble with my breast (incision draining) for months after and continued to take antibiotics and pain medications.  I even had to have a needle aspiration of the area 9 months after the surgery.    

I am writing this to encourage you to share this information with ladies planning on breastfeeding.  It is so important to make sure you wash/sanitize your hands any time you touch your breasts while nursing.  I was so careful to wash them prior to breastfeeding; however, I didn’t wash them again before applying creams to my sore nipples.  Since Staph is everywhere in a hospital in particular, it is so important to wash them constantly.  This is sometimes difficult when you are a new mom and learning how to do everything.  Please help share this information so other moms (especially new moms) do not have to experience what I did and miss out on the fabulous first days and months of their little one’s life.    

As a nursing tech on a local hospital med-surg unit (Indianapolis) I have seen and cared for hundreds of people in Contact Isolation for MRSA. Containment of MRSA is a difficult challenge at best. I often see nursing staff, Doctors (YES DOCTORS), and patient's families defying the use of universal precautions (i.e. gloves, gowns, and masks if in sputum) because they are in a hurry or are not properly instructed. It is hard to be the MRSA "police" when you are the the bottom of the hospital hierarchy.

To add insult to injury, I noticed a small welt one day on my leg and called Employee Health, told them in what area I worked and asked what I should do; If I should come in to be evaluated and swabbed (not wanting to expose anyone if I had an active MRSA lesion). The Health nurse called back and said that the Nurse Practitioner said to go to my Primary Care Dr. When I asked what would happen if it was positive, she went away for a moment and when she got back on the phone she said that it would be my burden of proof to show that I had been exposed at work!!!!

In many hospitals it's all about the bottom line and having your ducks in a row when JAHCO (the hospital licensing agency) comes in to inspect (many cases probably come from nursing homes where diligence is low also). What is really ironic is that I have an auto-immune disease and take an immunosuppressive drug...