Re: MRSA in Sputum, didn't know had?
My father died of hospital acquired MRSA pneumonia. He was in the hospital for 6 days before it was diagnosed, so nobody used precautions before that, including me or my family. I helped care for him and I was actually the person who requested a sputum culture and I obtained it for the staff nurse.
Undoubtedly, I was exposed to MRSa. MRSA in the lungs can be spewed up to 4 feet around a patient with a cough. So, that much of his immediate environment may be contamintated with MRSA.
I haven't been cultured or screened. If something comes up that I need surgery or hospitalization, I will demand a MRSA screening...for my own sake and that of any future hospital roommates. My mother also helped care for my father and she had a nasal culture done before recent surgery. She tested negative, even after extensive exposure to MRSA.
Most MRSA does NOT come from the community. It is believed that almost 85% of MRSA is health care related. It is because CDC and hospitals have ignored the ever increasing pandemic of MRSA infections. It is easier for hospitals to ignore infections by not screening admissions to their hospitals. It takes effort and planning to stop MRSA infections. Instead, most hospitals, supported by inadequate recommendations from CDC, react to deadly active infections rather than prevent them.
Representative Jackie Speier of California introduced HR 2739 on June 24. I spoke about my father's death at that event in Washington DC. This bill will phase in universal screening over a 5 year period and mandate MRSA Isolation, precautions, disclosure and reporting. This bill addresses what hospitals have failed to address regarding MRSA infections. Nurses are front line caregivers. Administrations who do not enact preventative measures (ie, active detection and Isolation) for MRSA put their front line caregivers and patients at a disadvantage and at risk of MRSA infection.
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