Hello everyone,
I am Maureen Daly. My mom was Johanna Daly. She is mentioned in the Forbes article. I can not tell you what it means to my family and I to finally see the name of the hospital where Mom acquired the infections in print. I am so very grateful to Forbes and Robert Langreth. Mr. Langreth spent so much of his valuable time interviewing me. His article tells us that Mom’s horrible suffering and death did indeed matter. These deadly infections are not inevitable results of hospitalization. Lives will be saved because of his work.
I personally witnessed two physicians change my mother’s surgical dressing without either putting on gloves or washing their hands. They left the filthy dressing in my mother’s bedding, never attempting to dispose of it correctly. When Mom found the discarded bandage she said, “do you see how little I mean to them? This is disgusting!” I told mom I wanted to call an administrator and file a complaint right then. She responded, “Please just get me out of here while I am still alive.” I had no idea at the time how the memories of those moments would haunt and torture me.
I would learn that Mom’s words were oh so true. She indeed meant nothing to these doctors or the administrators of the Hospital for Joint Diseases. After Mom was diagnosed with multi-organism sepsis upon readmission to the hospital, I confronted the Risk Manager about the horrible treatment Mom had endured. She flippantly thanked me for reporting the “incident”. She informed me, “we think that we are all that and a bag of chips, unless someone tells us otherwise.” She went on to tell me that these hospital acquired infections occur everyday in every hospital in America. She told me that every day in every hospital in America, people die of these infections. I still hear her voice echoing in mind. “They are just the cost of doing the business of medicine.” This was her explanation for why my mom was now on a ventilator, and feeding tube, unable to speak, incontinent and completely immobilized from the neck down!
I pray that people will learn from my family’s experience.
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3 responses so far ↓
Christina // Jun 6, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Thanks so much for personally sharing your Mom’s story, Maureen. I am thrilled to know that you are so pleased with the outcome of the Forbes story. I have worked with Maureen for the better part of a year at MRSAResources, and you will not find someone more dedicated to the cause of reducing hosptial infections. Maureen works with RID and Dr. Betsy McCaughey in New York and they are at the forefront of the fight. Take good care Maureen, and please keep us posted on what you and RID are up to.
Cindi Goreham // Jul 21, 2006 at 1:28 am
Maureen,
The same exact incident happened here in Omaha, NE with my mother. She was very ill and I took her into the emergency room. She was able to walk in but once she got in there and they did xrays and said they thought she had teburculosis because of spots on here lungs they had to do surgery and go down into her lungs for a biopsy and my sister and I had no choice it was for public safty. When she came back she was on a ventilator, it was the most horrible thing, the days in there still haunt me as my mother passed Jan 26th 2006 and I took her in there Jan 8th 2006. They told us after the surgery she had Staph Phnemonia and a blood infection and put her on antibiotics. At one point they told us she was getting better only to tell us a day later she caught a bug from the hospital and she wouldn’t make it. My mother suffered….they did what they did to your mother when changing dressings on her neck. They did not clean her at all and I had to get irrate with them on numerous occassions. I miss her soooo. I am trying to see if I have a lawsuit, I will let you know too. GOD BLESS YOU
Cindi in Omaha,NE
cgoreham68164@yahoo.com
Carla // Oct 7, 2006 at 9:32 am
Cini in Omaha, NE
I read your article about Staph Phnemonia, my father is fighting right now in the hospital with MRSA infection in his lungs. He had a stoke 2 years ago cannot speak or swallow. He is in a nursing home. He is on a feeding tube. I believe he got the infections thru his feeding tube. It always looks red. We are always on them about his care. This is one of the top nursing homes in the country. My mother is there everyday and catches them on things all the time. Several times she has walked in his room and his bed is flat, his feeding tube is running and he is asperating. They have signs up every where to keep his bed up, but 98% of the care is provided by aides. Also, I know they don’t clean his feeding tube properly that is probably how he got the infection. He has been to the hospital 5 times already this year. MRSA is serious and they should take extra precauions of care expecially in a nursing home. Most of the time it is my mother who catches that something is wrong and has my father taken to the hospital and this again is one of the best nursing homes in the country, makes you wonder how many patients die at the staffs mistakes when the patient doesn’t have family members there everyday checking up on them. I hope my dad can bet this.
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