vre in a patient on a vent

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Specializes in LTC.

I have a patient that has been on a vent since November he has a very weak immune system he has a stage 4 decub on coccyx I was told he has vre in urinary tract he also has some heart problems how serious is this infection on this man or are the other problems more of the concern at this point

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VRE is always a concern - especially since you don't want to spread it to others. At this point though, with the little bit of info that you gave, I am wondering if the doc has been discussing prognosis and quality of life. People like this just usually end up rotting away before dying anyway.

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Specializes in LTC.

yes they have been discussing quality of life, the family was asked about turning off vent and easing discomfort with meds, problem is that this person is fully aware of whats going on and ads input on treatment, wants to get up and wants pt to work with him, im very concerned about the affects of vre on him at this point he has such a will to live

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I have never seen anyone "cured" of VRE. Since Vanco is pretty much our best antbx - if Vanco can't kill the bug there isn't much of a chance. The only patients that I have ever seen that managed to contract VRE were patients such as you described, and they never returned to normal. They either died or remained severly incapacitated, often turning into veggies brainwise, and were in LTAC type facilities forever.

It must be very difficult that this person is aox3 but I still don't hold out much hope for this person to return to his former life.

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