Medical error can have devastating effects. Here, in their own words, Connecticut families tell the stories of how medical error changed their lives forever.
Carrie Simon
I have a story that I would like to share with you.
In January of 2005, I was admitted to a major teaching hospital in the northeast for heart valve replacement and repair surgery. The surgery was successful, yet a few days later I began to show the early symptoms of MRSA. Neither the nursing staff nor the resident physicians recognized the symptoms.
Only after about 36 hours of unexplainable deterioration in my condition and near fatal arrhythmia did the hospital staff respond appropriately and address the infectious disease that I had contracted. As a result I needed to undergo 5 additional surgeries, and remained a hospitalized patient for over 2 months. Then, when I got home I had to undergo 6 additional weeks of IV vancomycin.
I am a veteran of numerous hospital stays and medical encounters; I am an adult survivor of childhood cancer and a breast cancer survivor as well. I know, that there is a strong possibility that I will need further hospitalizations. Only now I am fearful of the very system that I must rely on to survive.ashing. Why is this so hard for them to do?
If my family and I were apprised of the potential for hospital borne infections, the 36 hours would not have slipped by without medical intervention that complicated my recovery. If all hospitals begin taking the necessary steps to diminish the potential of such infections, not only would lives be saved, but so would millions of dollars in related medical costs.
It is outrageous when hospitals do so little. People make jokes about “dirty” hospitals. It is not funny when it happens to you and each year in CT, 21,000 to 42,000 individuals get an infection in our hospitals. Most of these are preventable. Many times it is simple hand washing. Why is this so hard for them to do?
|
