Gehrke survived but it took seven months when all was said and done for the infection to clear up and the wound to heal. She says she was bedridden for a total of six months and racked up $13,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for home care and procedures associated with her infection.
"My credit is shot," says Gehrke, who works as a server at a local restaurant and whose husband works as a diesel mechanic for Wal-Mart. Their combined salaries amount to about $34,000 annually before taxes.
Gehrke asked her ob/gyn why this had happened. "'These things happen in hospitals' is pretty much what he told me," she says.
It is difficult to pinpoint the source of Gehrke's infection. It may have stemmed from a dirty instrument used during her C-section or from unwashed hands or the contaminated gloves of a health care worker. But one thing is almost certain: she picked up the bug at the hospital.
Gehrke is one of millions of patients who have unwittingly contracted infections in hospitals, where they went expecting to get well—but instead got sicker. Every year nearly 100,000 people die of infections they developed in U.S. hospitals and healthcare facilities, a greater number than those killed in homicides and car accidents combined. Some 1.7 million patients contract hospital infections annually, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Many of these infections are caused by multidrug-resistant superbugs such as MRSA and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Heavy use of antibiotics in hospitals encourages the emergence of stronger and stronger bacteria. Exposing a bacterial strain to one antibiotic essentially weeds out the weak and selects the hearty bugs that can survive. Then the next generation of antibiotics is called on; eventually the bugs become resistant to that as well and the bacteria continue evolving until eventually no antibiotic can kill them. "You can end up with bugs that we really don't have medications to kill," says Allison Aiello, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Experts estimate that more than 70 percent of all hospital-acquired infections are caused by bacteria that are resistant to at least one of the drugs commonly used to treat them.
Hospitals not only provide optimum conditions for the evolution of superbugs, but they also provide a plethora of inviting pathways for bacteria to get inside human bodies: open wounds from surgical incisions, catheter tubes running in and out of blood vessels and urinary tracts, and ventilators inserted through noses or throats and into windpipes.
What's most shocking about hospital infections, experts say, is that most of them can be avoided. "The vast majority of all hospital infections are preventable," Bancroft says. In the past, "the mantra was that hospital infections are inevitable," she says, but the attitude is changing because many hospitals have proved it wrong.
In 1978 the University of Virginia (U.V.A.) Medical Center in Charlottesville had its first case of MRSA. The bug spread from patient to patient despite the fact that health care workers were washing their hands after touching bodily fluids as well as donning gowns, gloves and masks when caring for patients with clear signs of MRSA infections (such as pus-discharging wounds or pneumonic coughing), says Barry Farr, who was a medical resident at the time and is now professor emeritus of U.V.A.'s Department of Medicine. By 1980, nearly half of the hospital's staph infections were caused by MRSA.
In an effort to control the problem, the hospital decided to actively seek out and isolate not only patients infected with MRSA but also those who were colonized, meaning they carried the bug on their skin or inside their noses, sputum or urine. (People who are colonized may be carrying millions, if not billions, of bacteria that can easily spread to others, either through direct contact or by touching common surfaces such as bed rails, doorknobs and blood pressure cuffs). U.V.A. began testing all high-risk patients for MRSA infection and colonization; those who tested positive were placed in contact-isolation areas with warning signs on their doors alerting health care workers of the patients' contagious status and instructing them to wash their hands after touching them. (The CDC did not even recommend hand washing before and after all patient contacts at this time.) Using active detection and isolation, U.V.A. had totally wiped out MRSA within 18 months, Farr says. "I watched this work at U.V.A. in 1980 to 1982" and "there was no question that it worked."
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8 Comments
Add CommentYou might want to learn about NovaBay pharmaceuticals. They have a new compound that kills MRSA on compact. Phase two trials should be finished in Jan. 2008
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe really sad thing here is that had this woman been at home with a good midwife she would have had neither the c-sec nor MRSA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article is very timely given the crowding conditions that hospitals are faced with. With occupancy levels higher than capacity strains all resources including the ability to ensure infection control practices are consistently applied.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLook like we have to design the hospital similar to standard of bio-hazard facilities. Compartmentalisation, negative pressure and UV light need to be introduced for the bacteria spreading wards.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAn article like this that does not discuss Ewald's work is not credible, it's just "Oh, gosh. Oh, golly." Ewald showed that M.D.s were THE primary vector for MRSA, the most frequent violators of handwashing protocols, and that resistance can evolve in a closed hospital setting in 6 weeks. He showed that opening up the system to competition from staph from outside will improve effectiveness of antibiotics and lower incidence of such infections. The response of the hospitals was to bar him from entry to their facilities, most likely due to an attempt to avoid legal liability in a malpractice scandal. The response from the medical profession responsible for curricula has been to continue to teach disproven theories that are now as out of date as those prior to Lister. Dr. Ewald has continued his fight and is now faculty in Kentucky.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSee:
Ewald, Paul W. Evolution of Infectious Disease (Oxford University Press, New York, 1996). http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Infectious-Disease-Paul-Ewald/dp/0195111397
Okay, folks. Likewise, I was unable to dialate so I had to have a c section. One day after the surgery I came down with a horrible fever.....one that almost cost my life. turned out I contracted E COLI in blood and urine. While my son was in NICU...the doctors were attempting to cook the right dose of drugs to give to me via PIC line. I left the hospital 7 days later where my husband had to administer IV drugs from home. The whole experience was HORRIBLE. I'm having such a rough time trying to get over it....so many things I should have questioned and asked more questions of while I was in the hospital. I'm now responsible for several bills, total to approx 9000.00. (Even with Health Insurance) O and get this, the hospital has decided to "comp" my bills from Infectious disease...and other bills. However, I'm still responsible for other bills they didn't take care of or bills that the insurance company wouldn't pay due to hospital germs. I can't find a lawyer in town that will take our case and I feel TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF and there isn't a darn thing I can do about this. Bottom line, the hospital gave me an infection that nearly killed me. UGH
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHad c section, contracted E coli from hospital. So sick that it nearly killed me...wasn't able to bond with baby. Sent home with PICC line to administer for 2hrs a day for 7 weeks. I'm now responsible for several bills including Infectious Disease...BUT when I contacted hospital...they decided it would be wise to open investigation where they found they COULD have infected me. They are now comping my co pays and other bills...BUT I'm still stuck with bills that the insurance company won't cover or that they are not willing to cover. Are they admitting guilt here? Not to mention the fact that I can't find legal representation anywhere....I would think this would be cut and dry?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is an ozone and hydrogen product callee AsepticSure which is being developed for distribution. It is a mist that fills the room and sterilizes everything without toxic residue. Interestingly it is probably also the one known cure for bedbugs. They cannot survive it either.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBefore long it will be standard in every hopital that wants accreditation.