McCleary MRSA Prevention

The day after my 83 year old father was readmitted to the Hospital, where he had contracted MRSA pneumonia, he slipped into Sepsis.  He was extremely weak and feverish on admission, and they had put him through a lot of testing and diagnostics.  My mother and I went into his room after lunch and I immediately saw a change in him.  His skin was ashen, and he was hard to arouse.  His nurse, a freshly minted RN, was typing on the computer on wheels right next to his bed.  I asked her to check his vital signs.  She said, “oh, he is just exhausted because of all the testing”.  This was a reasonable excuse for his exhaustion, but I knew something was off.  I reiterated that his color had changed and he wasn’t responding to us appropriately.

Dad’s nurse checked his blood pressure and it was dropping very rapidly.  He was going into septic shock, part of sepsis.  She called for the crisis team and they brought the code cart with them.  While my mother and I watched, they injected life saving drugs and slowly brought Dad back.  He was transferred into ICU and kept there for several days.   Mum and I called the priest.

That was the most frightening day of my father’s illness.  Neither he nor our family were ready for him to go, and so he fought valiantly to stay alive.  His infection sapped his strength and he had become bedbound, but he lived for a few more months.   Rapid response of the hospital team brought him back from the brink of death.  Septic shock is a very dangerous medical condition.  Dad’s sepsis symptoms were very subtle, and without my intimate knowledge of my father, and my ability to assess his status as a nurse, his sepsis might not have been caught as early as it was.

This week, the CDC has raised the alert about Sepsis and how important it is for everybody, not just medical people, to know the symptoms.

http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/sepsis/index.html

Everyone should learn the signs of sepsis and be able to detect it in themselves or a loved on.  Sepsis progresses rapidly and it can affect major organs and/or cause death.  Rapid response to Sepsis is the only way to stop it.   It is indeed a race against time.

What’s different now?  How are we doing?  Have we made progress in Patient Safety?

Its hard to tell. I don’t have sophisticated ways to measure the results of my work.  There is a difference though.  I am received differently than I was 7 years ago.   It will actually be 8 years ago this fall that Dad became infected with MRSA while rehabilitating in his small community hospital.

When I busted onto the scene in 2009 in Augusta Maine to fight for MRSA screening and isolation of patients who are being admitted to Maine Hospitals, I had to get my feet under me.  I didn’t know how politickin’ was done.  I didn’t “know” people.  I was an obscure grandmother, wife, mother, daughter.  I hadn’t worked in nursing for quite a while.  What I did know is that what happened to my father should never, ever happen to anyone.  With that knowledge, and powerful passion fueled by grief, I forged my way.

There was sympathy, and understanding, but there was inconceivable push back.  The greatest push back came from the Maine Hospital Association, their members and even some healthcare professional groups!  That was astounding to me.  I thought we would all be on the same side…the side of the patients.  We all want safe care, don’t we?  Well they want it, but they don’t want it to COST anything.  Cheap or free MRSA prevention would be good for them.  They also wanted it without looking bad for causing infections.   This means that my work could go on  if I didn’t tarnish the polished image of hospitals.  REALLY?

The push back did not deter me. I forged ahead and I still do.

I just got back from the CDC in Atlanta, GA.  This was my third trip.  My first trip in 2010 blew me away.  I was a bit intimidated, because the CDC wrote the bible of infection prevention and that was part of my job as an employee health nurse.  In fact, I was pretty nervous when I called there for expert advice, as a working nurse.  To be a guest there, as part of a larger group of healthcare consumers/patients was a little overwhelming.  I spoke out, but not with a lot of conviction or confidence.  The second time was better.  THIS time…watch out!   I had no qualms about speaking up, and often.  I BELONG there.  My colleagues, each and every one of them affected by healthcare harm related to infections, or medications, were all equally confident, informed and eloquent in their comments, questions and ideas.

The CDC staff that organized our meeting knew exactly what they were doing.  We met on the premise that this would be a discussion.  None of us were rushed through our introductions or our stories.  We each had equal opportunities to offer questions, solutions, and ideas.  Top leadership, including Dr Thomas Frieden, Director of the CDC,  introduced themselves, and briefly talked about their work and programs, and then we talked.  We had a real exchange.

Fresh new ideas around Sepsis, HAI prevention and treatment, Multi drug resistant organisms, Antibiotic use and stewardship, Death Records reform and so many more very important issues in Patient Safety were covered.  I learned so much, but I also brought the nursing perspective.  Programs, mandates, policies and recommendations are essential, but without proper bedside staffing levels in all healthcare settings, they will not work.   We will not get to ZERO infections without adequate  nurse staffing.

There were no commitments made during our meeting, and I do understand that it is not that simple.  But, tons of notes were taken during our conversations.  We also populated large idea boards on the wall.  I look forward to the compilation of all of this material.

Before the meetings, 4 other amazing colleagues were photographed and videotaped for the CDCs blog and other use.  While we waited our turns, a random CDC employee came by asking what we were doing there.  When we told him he said  “oh ya, I had a surgical infection and sepsis too!”  then he shared his story.  This happens everywhere we are.  Everybody has a tragic infection story about themselves, a loved one or a good friend.  We want those stories to go away…we don’t want everyone to have an infection story.

I am grateful for the opportunity to visit the CDC and I look forward to working with them more in the future.

After 5 years of this work to improve healthcare safety and quality, I have become very  weary. From my perspective, things are not improving very quickly.    It seems I have become a magnet to strangers who have had tragic healthcare harm experiences.  Many of these tragedies involve death and disability.  Here are a few of the recent stories that complete strangers have shared with me in an airport, a hairdressers shop and on the phone.   I am privileged that they trust me with their stories and that they have confidence in me to make a difference.

1.  A woman in her late 40s sat next to me at the DCA (Washington DC) airport.  I offered her a Wet One wipe to clean her hands after she ate a Cinnabon roll, and so the conversation started.  She had mesh implanted for a  prolapsed bladder.  She said  “It has ruined my life”.  She is unable to have sex because of the pain and her husband divorced her.  She makes frequent trips to a GYN office (not the one who did her surgery) for exams and reconstructive surgeries.  That doctor told her that she repairs the many messes that her original doctor makes, but “you didn’t hear that from me” follows her comments.  One doctor will not rat out another. She knows at least 4 other women who had similar surgical mesh outcomes (done by the same doctor) in my region who  would share their stories.  I encouraged her to talk with a local news reporter and I connected her with the reporter and others who can help her and the other victims of this local doctor to share their horrible stories.  They can help to prevent this from happening to other women.

2. A hairdresser in my usual salon approached me when I was getting my hair cut a few weeks ago.  She told me about her 77 year old Aunt, who was still an employed nurse, and who fell and broke her femur recently.  She had surgery in one of my local hospitals.  Within a day or so, she was critically ill with MRSA and sepsis.  That Hospital said they couldn’t give her the care she needed so they transferred her to the other Hospital in town.  She died within one week because of infection/sepsis.  She was infected during her surgery.  Then she told me about her sister.  She had the sling placement surgery for her sagging bladder.  This was done by a GU surgeon.  She had excruciating pain after the surgery and made repeated visits to the Medical center ER for treatment.  She was readmitted several times, but her surgeon kept insisting that there was nothing wrong, and there was no infection and she was discharged each time to suffer more at home.  Her regular family doctor later detected something wrong with her heart. She was referred to a cardiologist, who told her there was nothing wrong with her heart.  Finally she was admitted to the hospital again, in sepsis.  The infection from her sling surgery had become systemic and affected her heart and she died.  This debacle happened over a 3 month period, more than sufficient time for this infection to be diagnosed and treated.    She was 36 years old and left a 4 year old child behind.  Heartbreaking.

3. A retired RN who was an OR nurse in a local hospital, called me after I was in a newspaper article recently.  I had been quoted in the paper about the death of a new Mom who died of necrotizing faciitis within a week of giving birth to her first baby.  This nurse felt a need to tell me about her observations of 2 surgical cases involving NF during her career as a nurse. She described the surgeries to me in detail and they were horrific.  One was a nosocomial (contracted in the hospital) post operative infection and he died.  The other patient was transferred to Boston and he survived. She also told me about how her hospital hired people from a paper mill layoff, who were immediately placed in her OR.  They had no orientation, certification or experience.  They might have been a floor sweeper in the mill before they landed in her OR.  She was ordered to teach them to scrub in.  WHAT??!!  No training, no knowledge of sterile technique, no familiarity with anatomy, instruments etc.  Mill worker to scrub tech with nothing in between.  No wonder people are getting infected in that OR…and who knows what else is happening there.

The pain, grief and suffering at the hands of healthcare providers continues.  In some cases it is repetitive, untethered and unpunished.  It is horrible and unacceptable and although I am weary and disgusted that these things continue to happen,  I know I can never give up.  My heart breaks for these victims and their survivors.  I extremely grateful to  them for trusting me with their stories.

Things that I recognize in these three women’s stories are provider arrogance, dismissal of suffering and pain, lack of respect for patients,  secrecy, protection of one doctor by another,  lack of accountability, missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis, failure to rescue,  failure to fund appropriate safety measures and training, cheap labor,  license to continue doing the same harmful things over and over, no accountability, devalued life.  Where else in society does ongoing harm to human beings,  that sometimes causes death,  go  unreported, unpunished and uncontrolled.  Repetitive harm is criminal.  And those who continue to hide it are complicit in the crimes.

This has to stop.

On the second day of my fathers hospital stay for hospital acquired MRSA pneumonia he slipped into shock.  This was a quiet but quick decline in his condition.  If I had not been in the hospital room with him that day, his nurse would have attributed his “drowsiness” to just being tired.  He had gone through a lot of diagnostics that morning, including a lung scan.

My mother and I arrived to visit shortly after noontime.  Dad was barely conscious.  I spoke to him several times and he just was not coming around.  I expressed my concern to his nurse, who was right there in the room.  “Oh, he is just all worn out” was her response.  She was a good nurse but she was missing a very serious event that was just starting to occur.  I asked her nicely to check his vital signs.  Dad’s blood pressure had dropped dangerously low.   It was just a matter of seconds before she had a team in his room and they began their work.  He was given a fluid challenge and drugs to get his blood pressure back up.  My mother and I sat there the entire time  shocked and puzzled about this frightening turn of events.  I kept asking the doctor what was going on.  He called this a heart attack.  I repeatedly asked why he had the fever then.  Blood cultures were drawn, but they were negative.

There is no way for me to know if he had a heart attack that day or if his body was reacting to the lethal serious bacteria in his system called MRSA.   When I look back, I suspect that the doctor knew, without a doubt, that my father was suffering the syndrome of sepsis.   This occurs commonly in patients who are suffering from a serious bacterial infection.  Blood cultures will not necessarily show the bacteria.   My father had never in his life had a heart attack.  If he did have heart damage after this scary and unexplained event, I believe it was due to the sepsis and the stress that the infection caused his old body.

Sepsis is a very serious and often times deadly event that occurs when patients contract MRSA.  It comes on quickly after the invasion of the microorganisms and treatment to reverse the sudden drop in blood pressure must be quick and effective.  In Dad’s case, after the second worst event of his newly diagnosed illness(death being the absolute worst), he did recover in the short run, but the disease killed him in the long run.

Dad was transferred from his regular bed into an ICU bed that day.  He was catheterized and MRSA infected his bladder.  About 5 days later, and after I requested a sputum culture, he was finally diagnosed with MRSA pneumonia.

The day of this suspected sepsis shock, Dad’s doctors approached my mother and me about “comfort care”.  This means that they wanted to take away all of his life sustaining medications and just give him what he needed for comfort.  This was a blow to us considering this was the very same day he had this frightening event.  I thought comfort care was offered to terminal cancer or other dying  patients.  At this point, we had no idea that MRSA was my father’s terminal diagnosis.

  Although Dad was ill enough that my mother called the priest for last rights, he was still alert and conscious.  I told the doctors they needed to ask Dad what he wanted for himself.  They did. Dad was a tough Irishman.  He was not about to give up the fight of his life at that point.  And, that was his choice to do so.

He suffered for 19 more days in that hospital.  Then he was deemed “well enough” to go to the nursing home.  He suffered for 9 more weeks.   He fought the good battle, but MRSA won.  He never lost his desire to get better and go home and he never succumbed to the doctors wishes to put him in hospice or to put him on “comfort care”.  I loved that about my father.  He let people know what he wanted and didn’t want and after he told them there was no question left in their minds about his desires.

Dad will be gone a full year tomorrow.  His suffering and death left me with this burning desire  and ambition to stop MRSA infections.  Nobody should go through what he went through because of something they caught in the hospital. 

Maine Hospitals now screen all high risk patients for MRSA.  This is just as it should be.  We need to protect our loved ones and ourselves from this devastating infection.