Hi, Dave--
I am sure that every one of us wishes we could do even more to help.
Unfortunately, I have had some experiences with loved ones being in the
hospital over the past X years and I tend to pay careful attention to what I
see and learn, much to my dismay at times. When my Dad went for heart
surgery we had fantastically good luck because my sister is not only a
nurse, but had been the head nurse on that cardiac ward! When I saw what a
really competent advocate for the patient could do, it was just astounding.
Right now, I help to take care of an elderly gentleman (88) and he has had
many hospital adventures, including aspiration pneumonia. He has MRSA, which
he acquired in the hospital (as many, if not most people do). It colonizes
and at his age, he may never get rid of it. In the course of it, he lost a
toe and we have gotten it back from there so that he didn¹t lose a foot or
worse. I have heard that lately, there is also a very serious strain of
diarrhea that is mainly acquired in hospitals.
It¹s a travesty but, even knowing that the hospital is responsible for
transmitting these diseases, many facilities cannot get the physicians or
other staff to wash their hands, wear gloves and change them often enough,
etc. When our gentleman went to the ER for the aspiration pneumonia, it was
because he had choked on a big Doxycycline pill that had gone down the wrong
pipe. As usual these days, he had to be there for six hours before being
admitted. Each time someone would come up, we would say, ³He¹s here because
he was taking Doxycycline for MRSA and he choked on the pill.² Five
white-coats came up to him, and only the fifth decided it was a good idea to
put gloves on before touching the MRSA patient!
Also, these days they will often come into your room with gloves on and just
begin. This is wrong. You have to ask, what was the patient they just
touched suffering from? In my many hours in the ER over the last two years,
I have seen many cases where they drop something on the floor and pick it up
and use it, such as an IV line. I can just imagine the parade of microbes
that is crawling on an ER floor.
--Dave S. (Demitri)
On 11/14/08 2:09 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dave,
>
> Thanks for your insights and encouragement. I have already asked at Good
> Samaritan if they had a problem with me or my wife staying overnight with Adam
> when he comes and they said, "No problem at all."
>
> They said today that Adam would be able to go home with the PICC line. Dr.
> Scalea made sure it was placed to protect the aorta repair.
>
> Thank you again,
> Dave
>
>
> **************
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