Florida woman goes into hospital to have baby, leaves as a double amputee

[UM Review RN]

How tragic! How frightening! This could happen to ANY of our patients! The rest of the story here:

http://www.wftv.com/news/6253589/detail.html

Woman Becomes Quadruple Amputee After Giving Birth

POSTED: 5:59 pm EST January 19, 2006

UPDATED: 4:06 pm EST January 20, 2006

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Sanford mother says she will never be able to hold her newborn because an Orlando hospital performed a life-altering surgery and, she claims, the hospital refuses to explain why they left her as a multiple amputee.

The woman filed a complaint against Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems, she said, because they won't tell her exactly what happened. The hospital maintains the woman wants to know information that would violate other patients' rights.

Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given.

The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.

"I want to know what happened. I went to deliver my baby and I came out like this," Mejia said.

Mejia said after she gave birth to Mathew last spring, she was kept in the hospital with complications. Twelve days after giving birth at Orlando Regional South Seminole hospital, she was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center where she became a quadruple amputee. Now she can not care for or hold her baby.

[VizslaMom]

We actually had a woman in our ICU that gave birth less than a week before arriving in our unit SEPTIC with the same bacteria. Within hours of her arrival, she was rushed to surgery for an emergent hysterectomy.

She ended up a double amputee herself (secondary to complications of DIC) and was in the ICU for approx 3 months.

Just so you know, DIC resulting from the infection is the reason this patient needed her limbs amputated.

The media doesn't know the entire story.

This woman should be glad she survived at all.

Time was definately of the essence with her treatment.

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Until you have seen a truly overwhelming sepsis you have no idea of how fast and how sick people can get. This actually sounds more like the other Cocci - meningococcus which is famous for leaving people as not only multiple amputees but scarred and otherwise disabled as well.

[MMARN, BSN, RN]

Holy Moly!!!! That's scary as well as tragic. :eek: But, they WONT tell her? I don't get it. What happened with her right to know? Um...I'm confused.

[VizslaMom]

We all know the media doesn't always get the story straight.

It's highly possible this woman HAS been told the story but just doesn't have the capacity to understand it.

[DusktilDawn]

Very tragic case. Unfortunately, this woman may never get the answers she seeks.

Originally Posted by VizslaMom

We actually had a woman in our ICU that gave birth less than a week before arriving in our unit SEPTIC with the same bacteria. Within hours of her arrival, she was rushed to surgery for an emergent hysterectomy.

She ended up a double amputee herself (secondary to complications of DIC) and was in the ICU for approx 3 months.

Just so you know, DIC resulting from the infection is the reason this patient needed her limbs amputated.

This may very well have been the case in this woman's situation. I think what this woman wants to know is whether she could have contracted the infection from another patient. She was told she had streptococcus and developed toxic shock syndrome. According to the article this was all she was told. The issue in regards to surgical consent has not been raised by this woman according to the article.

[grannynurse FNP student]

This women should be happy she is alive.

She may have been told but didn't have the intellectual capacity to understand.

Things happen quickly, it was necessary to save her life.

Sorry but being thankful one is alive but without their hands is a life altering event. And her inability to touch, hold or feed her child is also a life altering event. And she has every right to question what happen to her.

The second is an implication that is an attempt to deminish the patient, a favorite attorney trick.

It took more then 12 days for her to arrive in the OR. She was asking for generalized information regarding her situation, hardly a violation of anyone elses privacy.

Grannynurse:balloons:

[MiaNJ]

It's a very sad situation for the woman.

It's also kind of scary to think it can happen in any hospital IF she did get it from another infected patient.

I have some understanding of how this bacteria spreads, but I'm still confused as to how easily it can be spread.

IF it's mostly from skin to skin contact, how can she get it from another patient..unless she had close contact with that person..or can it be 'airborne' in the room she was in...OR if some equipment, etc. was used on that infected pt. then used on her...OR did the nurse/doctor spread it to her..

Can someone be a carrier and not show symptoms?

Sorry if these questions are ignornant..I'm just a beginning nursing student.

The story about the young person which developed pain in the lower leg (posted above) but with no obvious skin infection..is also scary.

So this bacteria can be under the skin and a person doesn't know how she/he got it?

Can shaking hands with someone that has a paper cut or sweaty palms spread this?

I guess I'm just a bit scared now if this bacteria can spread so easily..since I'm just getting into nursing. I know this disease is rare but don't nurses have more risk of coming in contact with it, since they deal with sick people daily?

If they have no Obvious skins of skin infections, can it still be spread just by casual contact?

[snowfreeze, BSN, RN]

I don't think it was really a bacteria spreading, just the aggressive growth of the normal flora our bodies carry. Usually our bodies handle them appropriately. Under certain circumstances those staph, strep and a few others can grow rapidly, this creates a nasty situation. The body reacts to the infection, becoming septic in the more severe forms. A break in sterile tecnique in the OR can allow our bodies normal flora to get into places it does not belong. A nurse I worked with almost died and her son almost died too because of a staph infection during normal uncomplicated lady partsl delivery, no one was to blame, it just happened. We took care of her in our ICU, I made the flight team let her see her son before they flew him to a pediatric center a few miles away, I knew they might never touch each other again. That was scary, she lived and so did he without complications but she was so sick and on pressors, her hands and feet were black from the drugs that cause peripheral vaso constriction. The limb amputation in the news was 12 days after the delivery, probably due to what I just described. The quad amputee knows why her limbs were amputated, she wants to know where she got the infection from, someone to blame. Is anyone to blame, possibly. We don't have all the facts so hard to say. She is alive and so is her child, I don't see that she is on dialysis so a lot of people did the right thing quickly and saved her kidneys. She mentates so her brain was also saved by appropriate response to signs of shock. Was it a result of breach in sterile technique somewhere along the line of her stay? Possibly, studying the documentation may help answer that. Now for the bigger picture, did anyone else have a simular experience when she was there, that will help point to where the breach might have happened.

[Undecided7]

Like the poster above, I don't see any questions raised as to WHY her limbs were amputated. People can walk into an ER with pain and be dead later that day. The medications used to treat shock basically cut off circulation to the extremities to save the core (vital organs). What she is wondering is WHERE the infection came from. From the hospital's response, it sounds like she should sue and find out- but giving a specific name could violate HIPPA. On a side note- everyone in a hospital should have a private room, ESPECIALLY after birth (think of the blood). I realize the older hospitals were built before common sense and knowlege of disease came into play, and insurance companies still pay for a "semi- private" room, but then I guess they don't mind paying for extra days and procedures d/t complications?? I don't know if that was this women's case, but I just had to put that in.

[grannynurse FNP student]

To answer the question, bacteria can pass from individual to individual. Noscomical infections are those that originate within a facility and are passed from staff to patient. Strep is not an organism that is generally not passed from patient to patient or staff to patient. Simple hand washing before and after contact, with a patient, is known to prevent noscomical infections.

Grannynurse:balloons:

[MiaNJ]

Granny nurse,

Thanks for the explanation.

But are you saying that Strep Cannot be passed from patient to patient or staff to patient, or that it Can be passed this way?

If a nurse/doctor didn't wash their hands, they could infect a patient?

But wouldn't that also put the nurse at risk for contracting the bacteria?

I'm just nervous about what the rate of these types of infections are among nurses. I know hand washing is critical, but aren't some bacteria 'resistant' to some types of antibacterial soaps..or they can become resistant?

I remember studying this in Microbiology class, and also about how using antibacterial soaps for years can make some germs immune to the soap. This can be a big problem for nurses. I would think using gloves whenever possible would be best.

To answer the question, bacteria can pass from individual to individual. Noscomical infections are those that originate within a facility and are passed from staff to patient. Strep is not an organism that is generally not passed from patient to patient or staff to patient. Simple hand washing before and after contact, with a patient, is known to prevent noscomical infections.

Grannynurse:balloons:

[pod184]

It actually is the action of physically rubbing your hands with soap and water and rinsing under running water that removes bacteria/virii/foreign matter from your hands. Antibacterial soaps may have a residual antibacterial effect, but it is far from the best way to really kill anything. A normal hand wash is supposed to take >15sec of lathering. If your objective is to kill bacteria on you hands, an alcohol based handrub is the way to go. There is NO mechanism for resistance to alcohol, it dissolves cell walls in bugs. The number one mantra of infection control is still true: wash your hands

Granny nurse,

Thanks for the explanation.

But are you saying that Strep Cannot be passed from patient to patient or staff to patient, or that it Can be passed this way?

If a nurse/doctor didn't wash their hands, they could infect a patient?

But wouldn't that also put the nurse at risk for contracting the bacteria?

I'm just nervous about what the rate of these types of infections are among nurses. I know hand washing is critical, but aren't some bacteria 'resistant' to some types of antibacterial soaps..or they can become resistant?

I remember studying this in Microbiology class, and also about how using antibacterial soaps for years can make some germs immune to the soap. This can be a big problem for nurses. I would think using gloves whenever possible would be best.