Topic : 04/01 The Superbug

Having been in health care and having to have infection control in=service every 6 months, the public could do much more by washing their hands with plain soap and water, rubbing briskly for about the time that it would take you to sing "Happy Bityhday", than using Lysol.  One reason we have so many immune people is because of the push (by people trying to sell them) to get people to use antibiotical hand soap and even carry it around in their pocketbooks.  I have a difficult time even finding plain hand soap in the stores that I go in.  We have also added to our immune systems by demanding antibiotics every time we get sick, regardless of whether antibiotics are called for with that ailment.  A  lot of people today have destroyed their immune systems with all the killing of even the good stuff.  I am thinking of one Hollywood actress that hired people to come in with the birth of her first child to sterilize everything in the room.  So how does that child build up its immune system?   Yes, I have seen MRSA and it is a terrible thing and in need of being talked about; but, Dr. Phil, I am disappointed in you for not stressing a first line defense and for  pushing stuff that further reduces immunity to the bad germs.

 I have been fighting mrsa since feb. 2006.  I had a hysterectomy that went terribly wrong.  MRSA was not diagnosed  for ten days.  My lower abdomen looked like a cantaloupe and my incision smelled awful.  I kept going to the doctor to find out what was wrong.  They said I had a uti and sent me back home four times.  My incision ruptured at home. I put moist heat on it to draw out the green fluid that was coming out and called my doctor.  They told me to come in the next day.  When the doctor looked at my incision he said it was infected and that I needed to go into the hospital again.  He took a scalpel and cut my stomach open in his office.  My white cell count was 21,000.  Temp 104 and climbing.  He told my daughter that I was going to die.  It was her 18 birthday.  She took me over to the hospital where I had an infectious disease doctor come in.  I am allergic to almost every antibiotic there is.  He contacted cdc and they put me on two different antibiotics.  I had to pack my stomach at home for 5 months.  My incision was the size of a dollar bill.  The muscle was eaten by MRSA. Eighteen months later I finally went to a Hospital in Mississippi to have my incision closed.  During that surgery I had a heart attack.  Later that night I had another.  Since coming home MY hair which I normally can sit on started to fall out.  Now the whole back of my head is with out hair.  My memory is gone.  I have three wonderful children and one grandchild.  Mrsa has since shown up on my hand.  It looked like a spider bite.  Tested positive for Mrsa.  Now the glands under my arm are as big as my thumb.  I,m hoping it isn't MRSA.  I don't want to give this to my family.  Can anyone please tell me why I can't get rid of  this.  I had breast cancer 9 years ago and had both removed.  How do I remove Mrsa.  Please anyone with any information tell me what I can do about my hair loss as well.  I haven't cut my hair in over 12 years until last month.  But it want stop coming out.  If you have any information please post it. Thanks.

Arizona has sister hospital to the Ohio Cleveland Clinic - There is a machine called a 'sensitive machine' it checks your blood with a ton of antibiotics at the same time to find out which one will  work.  There are only three hospitals here with the blood/antibiotic testing machine.   The  sister hospitals here do not have the machine only Cleveland Clinic downtown (main clinic) time is not on anones side with this.  My dad and my cousinswifes dad both died last year.  Watch if your husband gets tired alot.   Make him go to another doctor and call every hospital& find which one has the machine that checks blood test against many antibiotics.  Good Luck, I wish your husband long life- careful very contagious.  

I work in a hospital in Alaska.  I understand from the surgeons that I work with that if we swabbed everyone in the State of Alaska, you'd probably find 1/4 would test positive for MRSA.

 

We have a nurse who came from a large hospital down south.  They routinely tested patients and staff alike, but finally gave up because so many people were testing positive.

 

I think it's appropriate to teach people about this, but I felt your show could have been more balanced.

Yes, there are people who are dying out there from MRSA infections, but there are also people out there who would test positive for MRSA and have never been to the hospital for either an infected sore or a close call with death.

 

It would have been nice to point that out as well.

Oh yeah just throwing this out there but I asked my mother (a nurse with her BSN) about why we (the public) do not know about MRSA. I believe her answer is quite true. We all remember the scares of the Avian Flu and SARS right? Well look at MRSA, its alot the same. A large portion of the public would panic to some degree. I believe the state and the medical boards are trying to do damage control and prevent this potential panic. I'm not saying that we should not know about it, I in fact commend Dr. Phil for putting it on the air but if say the Globe and Mail put it on the front page there would be statewide panic. Thats just my theory.

My sister battled MRSA for about five years and it seemed she was SLOWLY getting better after several hospitalizations. The hospital put a port in her chest so they could easily inject antibiotics (or whatever else might be needed) without having to start a new IV every time. Unfortunately, my sister died from a pulmonary embolism as a result a clot from the port. Of course MRSA had weakened her so much for so long, she might have told you it was a relief to pass away, she suffered so much from it.

 

My sister told me before she died that she was sure she got MRSA from a pedicure she received at a southern California spa. Unfortunately there really is no way to prove where you got it from since it's nearly everywhere.

 

I miss my little sister terribly - she left behind two teenage sons, a husband, parents, her brother (me) and many neices and nephews. Unfortunately my older sister died just a few months later (unrelated) so we have had our fill of grief.

 

MRSA is extremely dangerous and I applaud Dr. Phil for informing the public about the reality of this killer.

I had MRSA in February of 2007. I was flown to the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City, Iowa. I had the skin debrided and was sent home on the oral medicine ZYVOX, 600mg. tablets. It is a very powerful anti-biotic. I was also placed on the WOUND VAC. This is a marvelous machine. It helps your body to heal in a quick fashion. And it works. But I owe my quick recovery to the medicine and the would vac. If you have MRSA and nothing is working, ask  your doctor about ZYVOX.

I am thirty five years old and two years ago I was accidentally diagnosed with HA MRSA.  I have had the symptoms and lesions since I was approx. 13 or 14 years old.  At the age of 13 I suffered a server burn to my right leg which covered almost 75% of my leg.  A short while after the burn healed, I began getting these cyst under my arm and in the creases of my legs.  The ID Doctor is assuming that I most likely contracted MRSA at that time.  My Mother took me to countless doctors for the cysts.  Some of them would get as large as a golf ball and would have to be drained.  Every doctor I have seen for them would simply offer up some "so called" medical excuse such as infected lymph nodes or infection hair follicles and would place me on some form of antibiotics that would not work.  It was until two years ago that I had taken my daughter to our local nurse practitioner for a cold and the nurse practitioner just happened to see the cysts under my arm (I was wearing a shirt with spaghetti straps).  The NP asked me with a concerned voice had I seen a doctor for that and I told her I have seen countless doctors with no success.  She then insisted on doing a culture.  It came back positive for HA MRSA.  Since then, I have had four surgeries with another one scheduled in the next few months.  I have just begun seeing an Infectious Disease doctor.  I have been taking Rifampin, Minocycline, Bactraban (topical and injected in my nasal cavities) for over three months.  These two antibiotics have made me so violently ill that I have had to take a leave from work, I have lost 18 pounds, and all I have been able to do is lay on the couch.  I have learned to cope with this illness and all its side effects, but it just absolutely infuriates me that it took anyone nearly twenty years to be able to tell me what it was.  Case in point, now I have to be concerned for my children, my youngest being nine.  She has just been diagnosed with it as well.  One point I would like to make is that when MRSA broke out on the news several months back, you would hear of Insurance companies blaming hospitals and doctors for not  screening for this and I could not agree more; however, I would also have to say that all the Insurance Companies and HMO's should step up to the plate and take a little responsibility for some of this as well.  For example, when the  FNP discovered mine, there was very concerned that it could also be in my blood stream and wanted to run test on my blood stream, kidneys, and lungs.  When she attempted to start this process, the insurance company denied it without any further treatment of antibiotics and other treatments.  In my opinion, Insurance companies should be held accountable as well.  Anyway, I would like to say to anyone who is battling this, don't take no for any answer and I wish everyone the best of luck.

I have been dealing with this since I went into the hospital to have my baby. i came home and then noticed a rash on my hands. i thought it was from washing dishes, etc....but after months i find out that it is MRSA STaph and my dr. tries everything. my baby got it, and the peditrician's office is the only one who took the time. i had been put on medication after medication. nothing worked. i got two different PICC lines and had them in for 5-7 weeks at a time. stillnothing. then once Dr.;s got sick of seeing me they would say i needed to go see a dermatologist, then the dermatologist would tell me i need to go to Infectios Disease, where AIDS patients do go.  I have no one who will see me now. no other options. i just found out i was pregnant, i will not be able to touch my abby when it is born if i do not get rid of this.  i have three other people who had babies at the same hospital and they too contracted this MRSA Staph. One couldn't hold her baby until it was 5 months old. I too like the guest Stephanie, they do not tell you anything. they never tell you what might happen. it is RIDICULOUS. these Dr.s do not know anything either. They do not know what else to try, and they each tell you do is something else. they are now telling me i am a carrier. i had never had any infections. ever.....my husband and mother too contracted the MRSA and they told me i could not cover the infected area. that it needed air. my infectious disease Dr. told me that he too had it. I do not know what else to do. we need help.

My mom contracted the superbug (MRSA) from her place of employment. She worked for the great state of NJ in a home for the Mentally Disabled. She had gotten scratched by one of the male clients there and within a couple of days had to have surgery and spend the next 3 mos out of work. The hospital where she had the surgery done notified OSHA,The CDC as well as the State Dept of Health. When the Center was told about this they said they did not have to disclose who was carriers in the developmental center. Then later they found out they were in wrong. Eventually Mom had ended up in and out of the hospital several times and everytime she went an infection would set in and it would turn into MRSA. It finally took her 3-27-06 at 62 yrs old. Mom ended up with a nasty infection in her foot as well as her kidneys shutting down. In my opinion the MRSA took her life. The cause of death was ruled as ANASARCA which is a fancy word for severe fluid retention. I know that MRSA will eventually destroy the organs till it kills you. So everyone be careful in the health field as well as schools. This is a nasty horrible death to watch anyone go thruogh.