Ever get infection/ disease from a patient??

Nurses General Nursing

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After reading some of the Nursing "horror stories" thread about being pooped/ puked/ peed/ bled/ and ejaculated on, I was wondering if anyone has caught an infectious disease or illness from a patient before? Hopefully that stuff doesn't happen every day!!

Rhonda

Had a pt once who was diagnosed with pancreatitis. I got sick as a dog, but never got diagnosed even though I went to a doctor. I really believe I got pancreatitis (or hepatitis) from this patient. The pt got vanco. I got nothing, but more and more sick. My work supervisors kept telling me how horrible I was looking and that I should go to a doctor. What they should have done was drag my little behind (it was little at the time) down to a local hospital and insist that I was admitted. I kept going to the doctor(s) and slipping right past them. Sick, sick, sick. At some point, I stopped working, realizing that I could be contagious. Whatever it was, eventually resolved. There were other things going on; I might have been lucky. One of these days, will have a discussion with a new doctor. Just for my own peace of mind. (Had no significant other to take care of me and make sure I got good care; there's a lesson here somewhere).

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Mycoplasma pneumonia from a man who was too tall for the stretcher. I was supporting his shoulders and he coughed right into my face. Couple of days later was dawg sick. Shoot we were moving him to another hospital closer to his home. He had a fx femur-nothing pulmonary. I later heard he'd developed myco pneumonia also.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Only.

MRSA...boy was that fun...

Had a patient who trached, home care setting, who required frequent suctioning. (I'm talking up to 15-20 times per hour). Child would just drown in her own secretions and had no way to cough/gag/ or swallow.

Had some nice abscesses that had to be excised, my poor husband learned to pack wounds, and took meds that made me so sick..

It ruined my stomach. In the course of 2 weeks I had Bactrim (never again), Rocephin shot, Clindamycin, Levaquin, Bactroban to the nares, Flagyl, Phenergan, and Lomotil (my best friend).

It took a month before I could eat normal foods comfortably again..lost 12 lbs on the jello/broth/chocolate milk/yobaby yogurt diet!

It took a long time for me to even feel better..

Moral of the story - even if you have to glove up for an hour straight - do it!!!

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