I have had many friends injured or infected on the job who have received the runaround; myself included, so I know what you mean perfectly. The 'caring' of these hospitals/nurse employers doesn't extend anywhere near its nurses, but we are expected to give unconditionally to others. I believe nurses SHOULD go public and expose these heartless employers who treat their nurses so poorly after years of giving.
Worst case I know is a coworker who sounds very similar to your situation: she developed MRSA (virulent, systemic and per our own ID docs, NOT community acquired but facility acquired) The hospital of course is NOT helping her...'you can get staph anywhere'...she almost died in ICU, ended up with open wounds and on rehab for months getting some strength back. Now she is disabled...the MRSA went to sepsis, then spinal osteomylitis, ate up her vertebrae requiring multiple surgical stabilizations etc etc. She is a single parent, broke, trying to fight this also.... but after 30 some yrs in nursing and almost dying, some of the fight tends to go out of us I imagine.
I have another coworker who had an injection given incorrectly by the employee health nurse and caused RSD type reaction to a limb...unrelenting pain and disability for the nurse...and the hospital refused to accept responsibility too.
And of course we all see the usual runarounds with pulled muscles, sprained backs and worse...where the facilities intimidate and browbeat the nurse until she gives up the claim and/or goes away quietly. Most of us who have been nurses awhile and mingle with coworkers over the decades have similar stories to tell I'd wager. It is wrong and sad IMO.
Good luck to you and I wish you the very very best in the future. My heart goes out to all people taken advantage of by greedy employers who do everything they can to avoid taking responsibility for occupational hazard and injury. It is rampant in nursing; and hospital's claim to 'care' so much is what angers me when I've seen how badly many nurses are treated.
Sorry so long...but this issue has been the most bitter of all pills to swallow in nursing.
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...yet must still make a $900 a month medical insurance payment so that my family has health insurance.....which I'm using up...as I'm finding that I have a new full time job just trying to get better so that I can get back to work. I'm scared to death that my disability could be permanent. I didn't go to college for six years and work so hard for a career just to loose it. All I wanted was my company to stand by me long enough for me to recover and get back to work....guess that was too much to ask!
Hurt on the job....
So sorry to hear about your friend who got MRSA. I can totally relate to her energy requirements going all to her healthcare recovery. Because good health is of course the most important thing in our lives and recovery is an all consuming 24 hour a day process. I hope she is able to obtain some simulance of her old life before her injury and is able to survive financially during all this. Still, she may find a point in her recovery were she has healed enough to fight back. Please tell your friend to not miss the time in which she is able to appeal....she can always extent her hearing dates until she is well enough or has the energy enough to have obtained an attorney (which doesn't cost anything in this case....just find a good one). If she missed her time in which she can request an appeal because she was in the hospital she may still be able to request one due to her unusual circumstances of being hospitalized for so many months. 
Companies know their wrong in denying our claims....but do you realize how many millions of dollars they are saving by casting us away even though it's totally unethical? 
Can we start writing to our local congressment to initiate different laws to protect healthcare workers?....especially in cases of infections. How about writing to the American Nurses Association, etc. Any ideas? 
