Mrsa

[nerrad123]

my father went into hospital in july 2006 for a simple operation on his circulation and to remove his toe on his left foot. he was sent home in the august with the district nurse visiting on a daily basis, it was quite obvious he wasnt ready to come home he fell a couple of times and i had to call round to pick him up, i suggested to the nurse he went back in as she was dressing a wound which he had before he left the hospital and it was not getting any better and he was getting weaker. he evenrtually went in and they started to take photos of this wound. he was re admitted and they admitted he had mrsa. he was sent to a room at the end of the ward, in the november he had to have his right leg amputated. he was in and out of hdu, we had numerous phone calls to come in as he was going worse, he battled on and on to finally loose out on the 14th december on his death cert it was multi organ failure, never mentioned mrsa they said he was clear of it by then. can i get a free copy of his doctors notes and is there a claim for compensation here. thanks for any replies

[GlasweJen]

I'm afraid that all operations carry a risk of infection particularly if there is to be a large incision or an incison near an area where there is likely to be a bacterial growth (feet can grow all sorts). The body is naturally immunocompromised post surgery and infections are likely, in order to even have a shot at this you would have to prove that everything on your fathers discharge advice was carried out to the letter. A large proportion of the population grow MRSA on them all the time, it only infects people with weak immune systems or significant skin damage. I really think any claim against the NHS would be incredibly hard to prove as, chances are he could well have been MRSA clear when he died.

 

As for free medical notes, I understand it costs between £10 and £50 to have medical notes printed off, these are statutory fees under the data protection act.

[honey5]

MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) has actually been seen to increase due to the lack of support from the government, due to the fact that when the first outbreaks were noticed all staff working in that locality were tested and if found to be positive were then signed on the sick until their 3rd test proved negative before being allowed back on duty, which can take upto 6 weeks or more. Thus leaving huge deficits in nursing staff and costing billions in sick pay, i have been nursing 4 patients with mrsa for the past 18mth and not one member of staff has been tested nor are those or have those patients been nursed in quarentine. I think youd be hard pushed to get any joy in attempting to make a case due to the governments stance on the matter

honey x

[midge61]

hi

I totally understand where you are coming from as a similar thing happened with my mother.

 

I have just done a google search about claims and there have been some very sucessful ones .

MRSA compensation

 

The family of a Lincolnshire woman who died after contracting MRSA in hospital have succeeded in their claim against the hospital trust.

 

Mrs Staples went into the Pilgrim Hospital in Lincolnshire for a routine hip replacement in June 2002. The operation seemed to go well but a few weeks after being discharged, Mrs Staples had to be readmitted to hospital with an infection in the hip area. Over the next few months, Mrs Staples was treated in both Pilgrim and Skegness hospitals, but the infection could not be controlled. In December 2002, it was discovered that Mrs Staples had contracted MRSA in the wound.

 

The infection did not respond to antibiotics and Mrs Staples’ condition continued to deteriorate. She had to be readmitted to hospital in April 2003 as she had become seriously unwell. By this time, the infection had entered Mrs Staples’ blood and she was diagnosed with septicaemia. Sadly, her condition continued to deteriorate and Mrs Staples died on 30 April 2003.

 

Mrs Staples’ daughter, Joanne Baumber, said “The infection had just ravaged her body, her collar bone was full of pus, her rib cage had virtually disintegrated. It was awful”.

 

Mrs Baumber approached us to see what could be done to get justice for her mother. We obtained expert evidence from a microbiologist and from an orthopaedic consultant, both of whom were critical of the standard of treatment given to Mrs Staples. We then started Court proceedings against the hospital trust. As well as pleading that the trust was negligent, we also claimed that it had breached the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations. This is an argument that has not yet been tested in the Courts.

MRSA compensation settlement

 

The trust then formally admitted that their treatment of Mrs Staples was substandard. They accepted that Mrs Staples contracted MRSA in hospital and that she would not have died, had appropriate care been given.

 

Shortly after these admissions were made, we were able to agree a settlement with the Defendants. A substantial sum was paid in recognition of Mrs Staples’ unnecessary pain and suffering.

 

 

 

This was taking from a solicitor site but it seems if the correct procedure for infection control can be proved you may have a case.

 

 

 

We didn't complain as my dad didn't want to make a fuss but I believe if more people do then the hospitals will have to do something to fight these bugs and improve the general cleaniness and control of these bugs.

 

 

 

Good luck

[GlasweJen]

Honey5, I'm a natural carrier of MRSA and don't need treated - but i do need additional nursing support when I get operated on to ensure that the infection doesn't jump on my compromised immune system. Nurses were signed off sick at the initial outbreak before it was realised that MRSA is part of the natural flora (residing in the back of your throat), you don't need a sick line if you're a carrier and it can actually cause more damage to remove your natural staph. aureus from you because the presence of S. aureus on/in you stops more nasty infections taking route.

[demon_x_slash]

Anyone can carry MRSA, as Jen says, it only becomes a problem when you havea weakened immune system. Unfortunately it seems that infection control in NHS hospitals has gone absolutely haywire, due, in my personal opinion, to the tendering-out of cleaning contracts. I know a few medical bods who remember having in-house cleaners, and a Matron on the ward who was directly responsible for problems. They say that in those days, if something needed cleaning or clearing up, Matron would spot it, go to the cleaners and say, "There's some blood/dirt etc on the floor in Ward 7," and the cleaners would hop merrily to it; if the nurses nowadays ask the cleaners to deviate from their schedule to clear up something, they get verbal abuse and complaints made. What sort of way is that, to run a place for sick people?

 

I simply don't understand why the Government allows this to carry on. It's simple - in-house cleaners, direct responsibility, restricted visiting hours and wash, wash, wash your hands up past the wrists!

[poppynurse]

You need specialist advice from a soicitor who regularly deals with NHS negligence claims, he will have access to medicolegal experts who can read the notes and determine the likehood of a successful claim.

Let us know how it goes.

[OLIVE.FAMILY]

I agree with demon_x_slash

My daughter was in hospital last year with severe atopic eczema skin infections. Her skin had got that bad that she was shedding all over and looked lke she should have been in a burns unit. The main problem was that the backs of her knees had become infected with MRSA and therefore could barely walk.

 

Whilst she was in hospital they had isolated her in a room on her own with a door that had a big sign on it about infection control.

 

One morning a cleaner came in swept all her lost skin around the room then out the door and up the corridor. What was the point of isolating my daughter i they are going to do that sort of thing

[Guest louis wu]

I simply don't understand why the Government allows this to carry on. It's simple - in-house cleaners, direct responsibility, restricted visiting hours and wash, wash, wash your hands up past the wrists!

 

I agree, but what about visitors, some of which would not know a bar of soap (let alone alcohol gel) if it hit them between the eyes.

[Goldlady]

I was in the A&E of our local hospital in a side room. The cleaner came and emptied the bin (which was one of those where the bag fits over a square frame with a lid which lifts up). However on the floor behind the bin (where people had obviously overshot) were blood soaked dressings and other nice things.

[Guest louis wu]

I was in the A&E of our local hospital in a side room. The cleaner came and emptied the bin (which was one of those where the bag fits over a square frame with a lid which lifts up). However on the floor behind the bin (where people had obviously overshot) were blood soaked dressings and other nice things.

 

 

It is an absolute disgrace isn't it....if people think so little about blood soaked dressings, then hand washing is going to be totally beyond them.

[GlasweJen]

perhaps the cleaner didn't have the correct equipment to remove the blood soaked dressings? There is a lot of protocol around handling blood in any form within most industries including the cleaning industry and the NHS. Incidentally you don't catch MRSA from contaminated blood products.

[Rich44]

so perhaps the cleaner should have had some kind of escalation precdure rather than just ignore it and leave it?

 

My partners mum has just been given MRSA for the FIFTH time she gets it everytime she goes into a certain hospital, now I know you're going to say its probably on her skin but I can categorically state it ISNT shes been tested and even more damning she doesnt get ill when she goes into the next nearest hospital so what does that tell you?

[Guest louis wu]

perhaps the cleaner didn't have the correct equipment to remove the blood soaked dressings?

 

 

There is a lot of protocol around handling blood in any form within most industries including the cleaning industry and the NHS.

 

 

Incidentally you don't catch MRSA from contaminated blood products.

 

 

I think the point is that someone put it on the floor in the first place:mad:.

 

So the cleaner in the A&E cant clean up blood? Are you having a laugh?

 

I'd be more worried about a blood-borne virus than MRSA to be honest.

 

 

louis

[GlasweJen]

No I'm being perfectly serious. I know it sounds crazy but rules are rules, cleaners have to be protected from the blood on the dressings just as much as patients do.

 

And blood bourne viruses don't leap off of dressings and onto people, you'd have to come into contact with the blood before it dried and killed the virus particle so chances are nothing untoward would come of leaving the dressing there until after visiting when the correct protocol could be put in place.

[Guest louis wu]

Glas,

 

sorry (I am a bugger and it's not personal), but this is an A&E dept, there is no visiting, it's one out-one in and the dressing could easily have been wet.

 

I also take issue with leaving a dressing on the floor in any circumstance, would a used sanitry towel be as acceptable to put on the floor? I would think most (if not 100%) of people would be horrified to find such an item.

 

It's just wrong and unacceptable.

[Panthro]

"My partners mum has just been given MRSA for the FIFTH time"

 

Your mother-in-law is clearly chronically colonised - despite your misguided denial - and it would appear that the first hospital is doing its job detecting it by screening each time she goes in. Swabbing is not an exact science, it depends on the technique, and there might be one wee bacterium on the skin that is missed by swabbing hence the reason three negative swabs are required to be given the 'all clear'.

 

She gets ill? So MRSA is an illness now? Or has she actually had an MRSA sepsis?

 

"So the cleaner in the A&E cant clean up blood? Are you having a laugh?"

 

Erm, no! Domestics in my trust take delight in telling us that they are not allowed to clean up and body fluids. Hence the reason why I had to clear up two litres of blood after a patient had burst his oesophageal varices whilst the patient in the next bed was having a hypo and the man across the way was dying. There is however no excuse for downright laziness. If I see blood, faeces, urine or any other body fluid I clean it up immediately or a.s.a.p. The same cannot be said of my colleagues.

[Guest louis wu]

So the cleaner in the A&E cant clean up blood? Are you having a laugh?

 

Erm, no! Domestics in my trust take delight in telling us that they are not allowed to clean up and body fluids.

 

I deliberately didn't use the word domestic, but the cleaning of bodily fluids has to be done, and is done by nurses, auxileries, students, etc, as well as the occaisional domestic.

[Panthro]

To the original poster, sorry to hear of your dad's anguising death. However, there would have to be a clear case of negligence to prove that he contracted MRSA in the hospital. It could have been the district nurse. It could have been himself that infected the wound.

[Panthro]

I deliberately didn't use the word domestic, but the cleaning of bodily fluids has to be done, and is done by nurses, auxileries, students, etc, as well as the occaisional domestic.

 

Definately, and I would agree it had to be done and as you say above it is unacceptable. However, did the domestic/patient/relative make anyone aware of the soiled dressing behind the bin?

 

What if a doctor walked by, do you think they would pick up a dressing? It is everyone's responsibilty, medics, managers, public, visitors, staff and patients, not just nurses, their auxiliaries and students.

[Guest louis wu]

Definately, and I would agree it had to be done and as you say above it is unacceptable. However, did the domestic/patient/relative make anyone aware of the soiled dressing behind the bin?

 

What if a doctor walked by, do you think they would pick up a dressing? It is everyone's responsibilty, medics, managers, public, visitors, staff and patients, not just nurses, their auxiliaries and students.

 

 

 

 

COULD NOT AGREE MORE

 

louis