"Nursing assistant dies of flesh eating bacteria.

[postmortRNhere]

Hi, I read this today on MSN...North Carolina, CNA died from a rare form of Strep A " Necrotizing Fasciitis". She had cut her finger on a wheelchair and 24hrs later her arm doubled in size. Her Dr. gave her pain meds and apparently did not know how serious this was. Horrible

[rnfullofbs]

I also read about this. That's terrible that the doc made an incorrect diagnosis giving her pain meds. How incompetent is that? I knew of another situation where a researcher was transporting a monkey and the monkey spit on her and it went in her eye. She went to the emergency room for an evaluation as she was having problems. The ER doc didnt order the appropriate tests and sent her on her way. She was dead a few days later at the age of 24. She contracted Herpes B that attacked her brain. This was a well documented issue in researchers working with primates. Why did that doc fail to diagnose her correctly? It's a shame that when we are in the most vulnerable and weakest position that we cant trust those caring for us. Scarey

[postmortRNhere]

The truth is, physicians also sometimes can't pinpoint an exact diagnosis. But I feel so sad because she probably worked very hard as many CNA's do and this happens. I wonder if this would be considered a liability for the facility ??? Being that you don't need gloves to handle a wheelchair. It may sound like a dumb question but I wonder...also I now see even law enforcement wearing gloves while handling people in custody for simple procedures such as handcuffing. I had never seen that before.

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

It is VERY rare but can happen to anyone. If you get cut or hurt and the swelling, pain, and cellulitis grows and grows and doesn't seem to equalize stop. Get to the ER!! A CT scan can rule out NF and see iif there's any SQ gas.