My Sister saw a friend of ours at the nursing home where Mom lives and asked her how her Mom was recuping and she said she was recuping fine, until she got MRSA while in the nursing home.
This is very scary for me. Has anyone else dealt with this? I am very concerned about how this will effect my Mother who resides in the ALz wing of the nursing home. Should we be taking our small children to see her?
I called the Nursing home and they acted like it was no big deal, that the MRSA patients have to go somewhere and the nursing home takes many precautions when they have a MRSA patient.
I would not take my parents out of their AL facility because I know someone that got MERSA. It is a drug resistent bacterial infection that can be anywhere. It is a mutation of a common bacteria that you can find in any public place. It usually enters through a pre existing injury. It is treatable, and not a death sentence though it is resistent to standard treatment. It needs a definitive diagnosis and agressive treatment. The worse case here came from a high school locker room. Actually there have been more cases out of locker rooms here than hospitals or care facilities.
In hospitals and care facilities they are very strigent about cleanliness and disinfecting. Every caregiver in Mom's facility has hand germ gel clipped to their waist and the use it. They disinfect common areas frequently, including closing down the dinning facility from time to time for a thorough cleaning. Yes, the patient with MERSA has to be somewhere. But the precautions taken are almost extreme if they know they are dealing with MERSA.
So would I take Mom out of an facility because of MERSA? NO! Would you take your son off the football team because a child in another city had a cut on his arm and got MERSA from a locker room that your son was never in? I would check into the disinfecting policy of the facility and monitor the use of disinfectant if MERSA was present in the facility Mom was in.
Yep, it's a scary mutation but just as with some other diseases in the past that we have feared, we need to use common sense and good judgement.
I got MRSA in the hospital after my back surgery, and they sent me on to the nursing home for a month of rehab. What are you going to do? Not use hospitals? That is the most common place to get it!
You take precautions just like you should. The wing my mother was in was diligent in washing their hands and in making sure that the residents were kept as clean as they could be. It's just something that they live with as part of their day-ever watchful on hygiene. You can't stop living for fear of getting this. And you shouldn't stop visiting for fear of getting this. Mom was in the wing for 3 years and never had any issues nor did we see any....
There was a severe outbreak of MRSA at a nursing home here last fall. They had signs on all of the doors informing those that enter do so at their own risk. Moms sister had it at the time and she passed away shortly thereafter. She had numerous health problems though. I'm sure MRSA did not help her but it wasn't the cause of her death.
In January of this year there was an outbreak of the stomach flu at Moms facility and that strain of the flu was a bad one. I caught it and it kicked my butt for 4 days. I thought I was a goner and at the time I didn't care. LOL The entire place was shut down. They had residents eat in their rooms and most of the staff was out sick and it lasted for 2 weeks. Quite a few residents went to the hospital from dehydration. If I know that there is flu there again.........I won't go in without a mask and gloves EVER. Thats how sick I was.
As far as moving someone, no I would not. MRSA can be anywhere. I watch Mom and take her to the Dr. if I suspect that anything is different with her health. I sanitlze her room when I can and keep things washed down.
My grandmother developed a pressure sore last month after a few weeks in the nursing home. It tested positive for MRSA. The NH took every precaution immediately. They moved her roomate to another room and told her visitors to be sure to wash their hands after visits. After about a month of aggressive treatment, the sore is healed and the roomate has been moved back in.
I know MRSA sounds scary, but no one is going to catch it by a routine visit, especially if you're healthy.
The main thing is for a facility to take all necessary precautions and treat the infection aggressively, but be patient because these infections do not clear up overnight.
The same stomach flu hit Mom and Dad's AL as well Chris..... twice. They shut down the dinning room and disenfected it twice. Served meals in the room as well as closing other common areas. Residents were requested to stay in their room, visits were limited, and the staff was using antibacterial scrub by the gallons. Yes, there were employees that ended up sick and some family members like Sister 3 who ended up going to stay with mom and dad while they had it. She gave it to her daughter and her husband and my daughter also got it. It was wicked. But it could have been much worse if the facility had not acted as quickly as they did to stop the spread of the virus.
Facilities are very aware of the dangers of communal living. They do try their best to stop the spread of any bug. It is to their advantage to do that.
