Last year this time, you may remember reading Dream Mom’s dramatic story of her son’s battle with MRSA pnemonia. I know I do. She is an unbelievably strong woman, and a beautiful writer. Anyway, she is reposting her story from last year, so if you haven’t read it, start reading it now. And keep on reading after she is done, you will want to.
Part IV .
Take care of yourself, Dream Mom, and your Dear Son too – I know you will. Our prayers are always with you!
Germs and MRSAs might be small, but they pose a big problem in healthcare environments. Man & Machine has spent years developing products to fight the spread of MRSAs and other harmful microbes. MMI has created keyboards with no cracks, crevices or seams, which means that germs do not have a place to hide and grow. So disinfecting our really cool keyboards is quick and easy
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In environments such as hospitals, where MRSAs can cause serious infections, Man & Machine keyboards definitely puts the power of infection control at the users’ fingertips.
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Joshua, I cannot believe that you would use such a powerful and heartfelt story as this for advertising. Shame on you.
Dream Mom, love to you and your son. I had MRSA in November, was in the hospital for 5 days, and am still recovering. I cannot imagine how much more frightening the disease is for the mother of a child whose health is already compromised. I also taught special needs children for 14 years, so I am familiar with some of the emotional and ethical debates you engage in on a daily basis. Again, I can only send you love, and I will do that on a daily basis.
My first experience with MRSA was in July of 2005. My oldest son fell at work and injured his knee. Most of the injury was from the impact but he also had a small scrape. He was treated at the local emergency center and told to stay off it for a few days and apply ice for the swelling. Four days later he was running a high fever, his knee was twice the normal size and the scrape was oozing. He went back to the emergency room where they told him he had an infection and gave him antibiotics and sent him home. For the next 2 weeks he was back and forth to the emergency room with high fever and a worsening infection. He was finally admitted to the hospital and a culture showed he had MRSA. He went through several antibiotics and surgery to remove the dead tissue before he showed any improvement. I had never heard of MRSA before, so I got on the internet and read about it. At that time there wasn’t much information available. Most of what I read was about Hospital acquired MRSA. No mention of Community acquired. So I still didn’t know a lot about MRSA.
Then in Feb 2007 my youngest son, age 25 became ill with what appeared to be flu symptoms. Within 3 days he had a severe cough, chest pain and was running a fever. He went to the emergency room around midnight on Feb 15th. They checked his vitals, listened to his chest and told him he had bronchitis. They gave him Codeine cough syrup, an inhaler, and a bottle of prednisone. He stayed home from work the next day and slept most of the day, with the help of the cough syrup. The morning of the 16th he woke up very weak. His wife helped into the living room where he collapsed and stopped breathing. She gave him CPR and called 911. When the paramedics arrived, he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. His lungs were filled with blood which was flowing from his mouth. The emergency personnel intubated him and continued CPR. His temperature was 106 and he was severely dehydrated. They transported him to the hospital where he spent the next two hours struggling to survive. Needless to say, he did not make it. The autopsy showed the cause of death was sepsis due to Community acquired MRSA.
I am still trying to figure out how this could happen with no warning. He had not been around anyone who was sick and he didn’t show any of the apparent signs of MRSA. Recently there has been a lot of publicity about MRSA in the schools, most of which pertains to the strain of MRSA that my oldest son had. The first time I had heard of any deaths on the news was when the young boy in Georgia died after being treated in the emergency room and sent home, basically the same scenario as my son. I recently read that there were more deaths from MRSA in 2005 and 2006 than from AIDS. Everyone has heard of AIDS, why haven’t we been warned about this “super bug” that can kill a perfectly healthy young man in a matter of hours?
My son left behind a wife, a 2 yr old son, a 1 yr old daughter, parents and siblings that loved him. This should not have happened. It really sickens me to think about how many young lives have been senselessly lost. These are not statistics; they are someone’s father, son, husband, brother, etc.