My mother was hospitalized for one week with MRSA in January. When she was then released, they said she was negative. She had one test two weeks later which was negative. There was no further follow-up.
She was just diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer, and had surgery 10 days ago. She was tested for MRSA the day before surgery, at my request, but the surgery was done before the positive results came back the next day. She is now in ICU with multiple organ failure and extremely low blood pressure. She was on a ventilator, but it was removed yesterday. I believe she is in septic shock, but the docs and nurses are not using those words.
They are now saying she is negative for MRSA and have taken her off of sterile precautions.
I have a few questions. Could being MRSA positive at the time of surgery, without any extra precautions, have contributed to her current condition? If she is truly negative now, can someone else still be infected from contact with her? I have a drug-induced suppressed immune system, and have been told by my rheumatologist that I cannot have any contact with her. Is that really necessary?
My mother was hospitalized for one week with MRSA in January. When she was then released, they said she was negative. She had one test two weeks later which was negative. There was no further follow-up.
She was just diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer, and had surgery 10 days ago. She was tested for MRSA the day before surgery, at my request, but the surgery was done before the positive results came back the next day. She is now in ICU with multiple organ failure and extremely low blood pressure. She was on a ventilator, but it was removed yesterday. I believe she is in septic shock, but the docs and nurses are not using those words.
They are now saying she is negative for MRSA and have taken her off of sterile precautions.
I have a few questions. Could being MRSA positive at the time of surgery, without any extra precautions, have contributed to her current condition? If she is truly negative now, can someone else still be infected from contact with her? I have a drug-induced suppressed immune system, and have been told by my rheumatologist that I cannot have any contact with her. Is that really necessary?
Thanks for any answers you can give me.
Sorry to hear about your mum.
I've had personal experience with MRSA it was in the knee joint, I refused to sign consent forms for amputation. They sent a psychiatrist to interview me as to why I was putting my life on the line. I told him I'd rather not live than to live without a leg. I fired the orthopaedic surgeon and another doctor and insisted I see the infectious disease specialist and got a better surgeon. They performed 3 surgeries to flush out the pus over 6 weeks and was quarantined as it needed regular draining. I was hospitalized for 11 weeks all antibiotics failed except 2 Vancomycin was the saviour. I have been recovered for 6 months and off hydromorphone and morphine for 4 months.
As for your mum in the eyes of a doctor Cancer takes precedent to MRSA although potentially just as fatal. If her blood tests came back positive that means the MRSA is already systemic. In ICU they may have discovered the tests could be faulty and the positive results were false (there are other staph bugs slightly less resistant to antibiotics that may have given a false positive). Your mum was in ICU for relatively a short time (not enough time for full vancomycin chemotherapy. Vancomycin therapy takes about 4 weeks.
I hope all will turn out well and always ask hard questions to her doctors and if you feel your mums doctors are not up to par ask for an infectious specialist also ask nurses and other patients as to whom has the best track record.
I'm terribly sorry about your mother, I know what you're feeling, though perhaps not exactly. What i do know, based on my own experience, is that the medical system is terribly inexact when it comes to MRSA, it's various strains and manifestations, as well as viable treatments. I contracted MRSA in '06 and quickly wound up bed-ridden as my infection eroded much of the skin and muscle tissue of my right thigh. I almost attempted vancomycin but due to an already severely weakened immune system from previous antibiotics as well as a hereditary blood disorder, I chose a natural route as my last ditch effort before meeting my maker.
I'm saying all this because it seems relevant as you've obviously encountered MRSA and it seems like your mother probably has, even if it's simply by being in a hospital (a primary breeding ground for MRSA.) What saved my life was a substance called Allimed, derived naturally from garlic, which acts as a natural antibiotic, killing MRSA in a way the bacteria is unable to defend against. I strongly recommend you look into Allimed, not only for your mother but also for yourself because unlike chickenpox, MRSA can keep coming back as I'm sure you're aware.
