This is Debbie’s story. Debbie is a military wife living in Alaska who acquired the even more resistant VRSA (Vancomycin resistant Staph) from a hospital when they were stationed in North Carolina. Keep Debbie and her family in your prayers. If you would like to share your story, please feel free to email it to me at christina@b5media.com. Your experiences are so helpful to others going through MRSA infections.
My name is Debbie ,and I am a 49 yr old marine wife and mother of 7 children and 14 grandchildren. I do not live in New Jersey, however I have something called HA-VRSA , which , is Vancomyacin Resistant MRSA. I guess I just realized tonight not many people are as lucky as me to have this illness ( being very sarcastic).I had routine back surgery in March 1999,and ended up with hospital borne MRSA. There was a “Code of Silence” back then and no one wanted to tell me, however, a nurse came sneaking in my room one night and told me what is was ,and told me to get a lawyer. She said she would never admit to telling me as she would lose her job.
I spent a better part of a year in the hospital, and then over 6 months in a hospital bed at home on a PIC line. I almost died twice during that time frame. I was in a wheelchair for 3 years, however, I did finish my AA with honors between being in the hospital ,and in the wheelchair at home. So, I was quite proud of myself to roll across the stage and accept my diploma with a 3.89.
Since then , however, I have become permanently disabled. I have several illnesses now, and I am sick several days a week with infections of some source.It has gotten to be daily chore to get out of bed and do anything since I have a compromised immune system, and anytime I get sick it takes me weeks sometimes months to get better. I have been sick for a month, and now just getting on the mend again.
I guess before I tell you anymore I should tell you I am now living in Alaska, however, my MRSA came from a hospital in North Carolina when we were stationed there as Marines. When we retired from the Marines on May 2002 ( or thought we were retiring ) we moved to Alaska. It was my dream come true, and my husband helped me achieve that dream. Unfortunately I can not live here to much longer due to my illnesses.
I wear a fentynal pain patch 100 mcg that gets changed every 60 hours. That’s a lot of pain medicine. I also take something called Lyrica for the neuropathy I ended up with. I also take hydrocodone for the chronic pain, and fibromyalgia.
I am not the suing kind or person , and really did not want to sue anyone at the time, however, as I got worse, and the hospital insisted on their money I decided to try. I could never find a lawyer who would take my case since it is a very well known Academical Medical Hospital in N.C.all of them sounded afraid, or thought I was lying I guess. I was told to get a lawyer out of state , and we could not afford that being a military family of 8 at the time.
Now, I have been told it is to late to sue, and we have even had to go bankrupt. We do not have an accessible vehicle I can drive, and we can not even afford to buy our own house. We have never had our own house always lived in military housing, or had to a rent a place in town for a while since my hospitalization almost destroyed my life and family.
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14 responses so far ↓
Rhoda // Apr 18, 2007 at 9:32 am
Debbie, If I were you I would investigate phage therapy. I don’t think it is available in the US. There is a clinic in the republic of Georgia, and perhaps there will be something in Canada since they are less repressed than the US on alternative medicine. You can email the phage therapy center in Tibilisi, Georgia at emailbox@ phagetherapycentr.com . They use a virus to destroy the bacteria and are usibg it on MRSA patients now and can maybe refer you to somewhere you can get to to get help. Best wishes and you are in my prayers, Rhoda
wallace Gummere // Apr 23, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Debbie,I do not know if this technology could solve your problem or not.
Check out these websites
http://www.tryfreshair.com/Air_Purification_Science/index_home.asp
http://www.chippynews.com/JamesLee.htm
http://www.chippynews.com/Tech,LaundryPureWhitePaper12-20-05.pdf
God Bless,Wally
Craig // Aug 24, 2007 at 12:31 am
I’m so sorry to read your downturn in life. I work in a hospital. I have met others who have had severe downturns due to MRSA. These victims consistenlty tell me that have not been able to sue the hospital, because it cannot be determined if the Staph infection came BEFORE coming to the hospital or if it was acquired during the stay. All the lawyers know this silly loophole. Every hospital would be out of business by now if anyone successfully sued them. The subject is so hush hush in every hospital. I hear the gov’t is going to mandate hospitals to ’self tell’ of new MRSA cases. I bet things will drastically change after that.
I’m so sorry for you and your family. Thanks for speaking out.
Craig
RN student
margie // Nov 20, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Debbie,
I am a 48 year old mother and grandmother from NC. I was diagnosed with MRSA acquired from a NC hospital after a total hip replacement received in 2004. After several attempts to get my doctor to believe that I was unwell I had to go 120 miles out of town to another doctor to find what was wrong. Like you I still owe thousands for the 1st hip replacement because the hospital says I have no proof that they were in fault. I am now going through the first half of 2 surgeries to hopefully get rid of the infection. (the 1st which I had 3 weeks ago in which they removed the infected hip and sent me home (with no hip) for antibiotic treatment for 6 weeks and then I will go for a 2nd surgery (all goes well) to have a new hip installed. These 2 surgeries will cost approx. $160,000.00 to g0 along with the $30.000.00 I still owe to the first hospital. Like you I have talked with lawyer after lawyer until my time also ran out at trying to get the hospital to take responsibility for their wrong doing. I just want you to know my heart goes out to you and your family and I can really understand your pain and anguish .
Margie
Victoria Little // Jun 6, 2008 at 9:45 am
I too have mrsa & my situation sounds very similar to Debbie’s–I’m in constant pain & go & get neural tx. for help w/ pain every week to 2 weeks. And I would like to sue & share my story. Can you advise as to an attorney who will sue over this. I am a breast cancer survivor who cannot get breast reconstruction at the present time due to constantly battling mrsa & immune system being down. I have 17 page write up I can share
Pamela Pires // Aug 19, 2008 at 1:57 am
I too contracted a hospital-acquired staph infection …2 (staph & strep) during back surgery last july. The surgeon would not admit I could be suffering with a staph infection 7 days later therefore testing me needlessly for everything else until finally an infectious disease doc came in and begin to fight for me. Unfortunately it went septic and it spread into my vertebres creating me to have osteomyelitis (bone infection) and eroding the endplates of both my L4 & L5 vertebres. I spent a total of 29 days in the hospital (7 in critical care). Have had two follow up back surgeries to remove diseased tissue and place drainage tubes. I had a picc line for 3 months for the 5 IV infusions I needed of antibiotics a day to fight these infections and am still on oral antibiotics over a year later. I am now told I am in “remission” since it never truly goes away. I have had pain in my shoulder/arm since the picc line was removed and now have had a MRI which shows I have a torn tendon and a cyst on the humerus which is pressing on a nerve….created from having the picc line in and my arm muscle was not being used properly that the cyst began and created the tear (so the orthopedic surgeon says). I am left with numbness in my left foot, severe back stiffness, extreme fatigue, no job (lost it due to my absence…over a year out), have now exhausted my disability benefits, and dealing with the shoulder pain and praying that the infection doesn’t flare up yet again. I have been “rejected” by every attorney I have contacted…..I was actually told by the hospital risk management at my bedside that they would offer me a investigation and mediation as long as I would not seek legal council….7 months later they had a teleconference with me to tell me because I signed the hospital consent form (required in order to receive care) that it releases them of all liability and she even said it was an unfortunate “chance I took” in having surgery!! NO ONE should ever have to take these chances and I am not going to ever keep quiet or stop trying to inform people about what is going on and how these are 100% preventable….lack of sterilization!! Please refer to the organization: stophospitalinfections.org I have compiled my story as well and hand delivered it to as many assemblymen at our state capitol as I could. I have sent it too all types of media as well as talk shows etc….hoping that someone will be finally brave enough to give us “survivors” the forum to get this epidemic out in the public. 2 million people a year are contracting hospital staph infections and 100 thousand are dying from them….and its kept quiet and no one is held responsible for them!! I believe those of us who are fortunately “survivors” and those that are representing family and friends of those who died because of these infections NEED to get together and make a stand. We should concentrate on a certain avenue and bombard them with our stories and pleas to get this out in the open and pressure the government to make the hospitals required to take responsibility for them. I sympathize to all of you who have walked in my shoes and understand the frustration and sometimes despair. I sometimes feel there is no help….but I can not sit back and want to make sure no one else has to endure this hell or lose their precious life over something that is preventable.
Please feel free to contact me personally if you should have any advice, guidance or referrals ….thank you & god bless .
Pam Pires
pamelapires@comcast.net
Samuel // Aug 30, 2008 at 11:23 am
Debbie,
I hold you in my prayers. I contracted MRSA as a result of surgery also, as a cancer patient. The lack of disclosure by the hospital of diagnosis and treament information is troubling to me. I am seeking to understand effective ways I can contribute to a conversation about changing this. Samuel
Meg // Sep 30, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Debbie-
I’m sorry you’ve had to go through so much. I know what it is like. I am 24 years old and 4 years ago I had a routine knee operation. One week later I was rushed into emergency surgery and had we waited one more day I would have died from severe septic infection. It was hospital MRSA. A nurse commented about MRSA and when my mom and I looked at her and obviously had no idea what it was, the nurse immediately left the room.
During the last 4 years I have endured 22 operations on my knee due to the recurring infection, have nearly died several times, and a year ago I ultimately made the decision to amputate above the knee. My knee had been destroyed by the infection and surgeries and no longer bent and I was in 24/7 pain. So on Sept 10 2007 at just 24 years old I went into the hospital to have my leg amputated.
7 months went by and I was doing great. For the first time in years i looked and felt healthy and was getting my life back on track. I have a top of the line prosthetic leg and was walking without any assistance. That’s when it happened. MRSA struck again. I found myself yet again in the hospital for 3 operations in 1 week due to an MRSA infection in my stump.
That was just 3 months ago and I have no idea whether or not it’ll come back. I also have Multiple Sclerosis [chronic, progressive, debilitating disease of the central nervous system] and thanks to the recurrent MRSA I am now out of options to treat my MS. I became allergic to the injetion I had been on for it since being diagnosed at 19 and the only treatments left are chemo and other meds that drastically reduce the white blood count leaving a patient more open to infection. I obviously can not do any of those because with my immune system as it is I get infections and if I dropped my WBC any infection I might get would likely kill me. It’s scary, it’s hellish, I can’t believe what’s happened to me.
After the first 4 operations on my leg I was transfered to a different hospital up in Baltimore MD to be seen by a surgeon who specializes in orthopedic infection. Even he is thrown and is the first to admit that they just don’t know why this keeps happening. He and I are incredibly close and I credit him with continually saving my life. A nurse told me in June that I should sue the first hospital which gave me the infection to begin with but lawyers say this is incredibly hard to litigate even though not only did I lose my leg in the long run but I have lost the ability to treat my MS. My prayers are with you. Hang tough. We both will survive.
Meg
Michele // Nov 20, 2008 at 4:36 pm
My dad is currently in the hospital. We were told today he has MRSA - never heard of it before today - everything i’m reading about tells me it starts with a type of skin irritation - he hasn’t had any type of skin problem… he started hurting in his back and has been going to the hospital, physical therapy twice a week until a few days ago when they finally hospitalized him and did some type of test where they drew fluid out of his back to test. They said his back was full of infection and today tell us its called MRSA and he will have to have antibiotics for 6 - 8 weeks.
Can anyone give me some information on this and if they’ve ever heard of this happening without a skin irritation.
Sincerely,
Michele
Victoria Little // Nov 21, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I am terribly sorry to hear about you having mrsa in the back. The story again sounds familiar. I have been having back pain & pain throughout upper body since mastectomy. & I too receive physical therapy. I am curious as to the type of test you had to determine mrsa & if you’d be willing to share it. I suspect mrsa but it does not show via pet/cat or mri. Not that there is too much one can do about infection…but proper diagnosis would be somewhat handling the battle.
Yvette TX // Mar 8, 2009 at 11:50 am
Im soory to hear about your experience. I contuned to read the responses and I have a problem thatIm little concerned with. My husband had leg surg, and had to go back to get the plate out becuase of a stitch that was left so it caused a infection. They put him on Vancomicyn for 3 days and then sent him home to take a 6 week antibi. Rifampicin and sulf acid. Dr said it was a staph but never said that kind (pan sensitive)? Is it Mrsa?
Julie // Mar 8, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I am a 40 year old MRSA patient. In Dec 2008 I was in an auto accident-suv pulled out in front of me and there was no way to avoid it. The impact left me with a open tibia fracture and fibula fracture, 8 broke ribs and a cracked sternum. I am one lucky lady. I was flown to a level 1 trauma center and rushed to surgery for the tib/fib. Tib was pinned back, fib required a plate and 8 screws. I was in the hospital 5 days. A month later the fib wasn’t healing- I was missing 2 pcs. of bone so I had a second surgery for a bone graft and a new, stronger plate. Hospital time-3days. Approx. 3 wks later I started physical therapy for ankle range of motion. After 6 visits an area became red and warm, I started running a fever and was admitted thru the er. The wound was reopened, cultured and cleaned and yep, came back MRSA. I was in the hospital 6 days now have a groshong cath and will receive 6-8 weeks of vancomycin followed by 8 weeks of oral antibiotics and the never ending fear of this turning to osteomylitis. I cannot prove it but I feel like the infection came from pysical therapy. The patients there are often elderly retirement /nursing home patients. I noticed that they didn’t clean their instuments and some of the therapist or techs didnt wear gloves when doing the massage, ultrasound or TENS unit. I knew better. I feel like this is my fault due to me not calling them out on that. So please, please, speak up. I have kicked myself daily because I didn’t. Now, I’ve been out of work for 3 months and now there is no end in site.
Barbara // May 12, 2009 at 8:04 pm
went in for a hip revision…everything went ok but I developed a hematoma in the incision so the doctor took me back to surgery to clean it out. That didn’t do any good either so the doctor kept taking me back to surgery without any infection (MRSA) until the third time and i got it (MRSA)this doctor evidently got tired of treating me so i quietly fired him and found another resurgen. This doctor i have now says he doesn’t want to operate right now so he is treating me with an antibiotic. He calls it long term antibiotics. It has been 2 years now and hip is still draining and i have to wear a bandage on it. I just don’t know what to do anymore.
Samuel // May 13, 2009 at 11:24 am
I would strongly recommend after my experience, that anyone dealing with MRSA seek a referral to an infectious disease doctor. This is their specialty. I was not able to begin getting past MRSA until I did. If you are told that you have a ’staph infection’, ask specifically if it is MRSA. Ask to see the lab reports. Until we inform ourselves and others, and demand public disclosure around this issue, it will never change.
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