question about CF??

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I was watching Grey's Anatomy the other night and a case came up with a guy who was there at the hospital to receive a lung transplant as he had pretty advanced Cystic Fibrosis. (Despite having worked for a bit on a medical respiratory unit I don't think I ever took care of anyone in specifially for their CF, and certainly not for a transplant as they would have been on a different unit.) So when the guys girl friend started having some respiratory distress and was reaching for an inhaler in her purse, she drops her purse. A med falls out and the doc that goes to help pick up the contents of her purse with her sees the med, looks at it and asks if she too has CF. She hesitantly admits that she does. All the docs in the room freak out and tell the couple that they can't be togehter. That two CF patients can't be together, not closer then 3 ft-- I believe they said--to each other as it is dangerous for both CF patients. That he would not get the lungs if they didn't end things for good. I had never heard of this before. I am guessing with all the smart nurses on here someone must have heard of this or know about it so I figured I would ask. Is this true? The way they explained it made sense I guess but it is TV after all so I didn't know if that was correct info or not.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Maybe they were afraid that if they're closer than 3 feet apart, they could accidentally get pregnant via telepathy.

I know that CF patients are often together a lot in the hospital when they go in for "lung hygiene".

I have no idea. CF is not contagious.

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CF is not contagious, of course, but the various types of bacteria that may cause pneumonia are. And the issue is diminished immunity to many different bacteria and viruses.

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Maybe they were worried about Pseudomonas?

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I think it would have more to do with the withstanding bacteria and secretions affecting the new donor lungs and the massive immunosupressives they are placed on......

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Specializes in Pulmonary/MedicalICU.

CF patients often have colonized pseudomonas (p. aeruginosa [sp?]).

If you think about someone getting a transplant, they take loads of immunosuppresants so as to decrease the chance of rejection of the transplanted organ...and this goes for all patients with any type of transplant. The last thing that a person with a transplant needs is to be around someone with colonized pseudomonas in their sputum, much less be in a relationship with them. That's just begging for sespis.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I can understand a fresh transplant not being around someone with infection or colonization, but the OP made it sound like two people with CF (regardless of transplant status) should never be around each other, ever.

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

If one of them has pseudomonis or MRSA they could infect the other one. Infectious respiratory organisms such as these can count against them when it comes to getting a lung transplant and can increase their recovery time after surgery. This is why CF pts always have a private room in the hospital, and are discouraged from being outside their rooms for periods of time in common areas. In the '70's and 80's a popular idea was CF summer camps. So many kids ended up getting respiratory infections there that most of these camps were shut down.

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I can understand a fresh transplant not being around someone with infection or colonization, but the OP made it sound like two people with CF (regardless of transplant status) should never be around each other, ever.

Yes, that is correct. They were telling this couple that people with CF should not be in a relationship at all. This was regardless of if he got the transplant or not. If he did they did say that he would be on imunosuppressants and be at risk for serious infection from her--this made sense. That part I do understand. But it was the being together at all even without the transplant was dangerous for both of them. That is the part I didn't get.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Nsg QA.

It's TV. Take it with a grain of salt (maybe a pound of salt). I never could watch any of those type of shows as they are SO inaccurate!

Does anyone really believe only doctors run codes??

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Does anyone really believe only doctors run codes??

Or that doctors actually draw labs?

Or that an ER doctor would care for an eclamptic woman...IN THE ER...and actually perform an emergency cesarean section on her?

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Specializes in Pulmonary med/surg/telemetry.

I was watching House a couple days ago and the doctor excused himself because he needed to go hang a new IV bag for a patient...it made me giggle :)

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