Messages By: richick11

Thank you for doing a show about this.  People do need to be aware as to how severe this "superbug" is.  I contracted MRSA in 2003 which kept me in the hospital for a month.  I had gone to the ER at night because I broke my foot.  The doctor in the ER didn't use gloves when he examined me and a couple of days later I developed what looked like a blister and I didnt think anything of it at first, thought it was the walking boot I had on irritating the area. But then it started turning black and getting bigger.  I was at an event and my leg started to hurt and a friend of mine who works with the fire department took a look at it and said I needed to get to the hospital immediately. A friend drove me and we sat in the ER for about 3 hours before I was seen.  The hospital staff apologized for keeping me waiting because it was the flesh eating strain of the virus.  Before I knew it I was in a hospital room upstairs waiting to have surgery because it was spreading up my leg.  They told me if it is in the bone that they will have to amputate my leg to save my life.  I was put on Vancomycin, Phenergan, and Dilotted every two hours.  I had 5 doctors as a team to treat me.  It was definitely the most painful experience I've had.  I could feel them pulling out the gauze in the wound where they operated and my 2 karate instructors (who are not wuss's in any way) had to leave the room because they couldnt take it.  I had turned septic from the drugs and they couldnt find what was wrong with me with my symptoms of a fever, constantly throwing up, immense pain and my white blood cell very low.  It was getting so bad that I had to sign my life over to my mother because I was dying.   They changed my meds from vancomycin to clindamycin to see if that would help and if the MRSA had just stopped responding to the other one.  They finally did a nuclear CT scan and it turned out my gall bladder had detached itself and was 70% inside of my liver folded in half.  Had it gone all the way in I would have been dead.  They took a piece of skin from my hip to cover the hole on my foot where the infection was and I have no feeling in that area.   What was worse was the reaction of coming off of those medications.  I honestly think I can relate to a recovering heroin addict.  I did try to go after the hospital for negligence and was told by several lawfirms that going to the hospital was a risk I took getting the infection from me breaking my foot to begin with.  That's funny, I thought I'd go to the hospital to get better, not worse and practically die.  The one lawfirm that finally took my case decided they didnt want to litigate so I was dropped.   I had never heard of MRSA before my incident and I couldnt believe when I started hearing/reading in the headlines about those who did lose their lives from it or are suffering from it and now it may even surpass AIDS!  I am so thankful to the doctors who saved my life but more needs to be done to control this for sure.

As others have advised, ask about HA-MRSA and more than likely you will see them wash their hands before your daughter is in surgery.  But the care after coming out of the hospital is huge too.  Because MRSA is in the community and can be found anywhere, it is not just the hospital room you have to worry about.  I was pretty much treated like the boy in the Velveteen Rabbit, where everything had to be either thrown out or completely disinfected to insure I didnt get sick again.  Also watch other wounds, like a scratch on your arm, a small paper cut, anything like that in which it can enter the body as well.

I do feel your pain.  I mentioned in my earlier post that all of the lawfirms I had talked to said that going to the hospital was a risk I took in regards to getting the infection.  I thought you go there to get better.  My suit was dropped due to people not wanting to litigate, but if the doctor that touched me without gloves had washed his hands I wouldnt be scarred and my internal organs would still be in tact.  But hey Im not a doctor nor lawyer so whatever.