My (internet) friend’s young daughter has been diagnosed with staph and it’s in her spine. They’ve been trying rounds of antibiotics for a few weeks now and just today they have found out that, while the infection went down for a few weeks, it’s back full force (i.e. the antibiotic isn’t working anymore). From what I can gather, they have one more antibiotic to try and then they have to move on to something else, if anything, but it kind of sounds like the prognosis isn’t great at this point.
My heart is breaking and I feel sick to my stomach over this. Is there any hope? Can anyone provide links to possibilities? Ugh.
But lacking further clinical details, I’m loathe to speculate too much over likelihood of outcomes.
Just know that while any infection involving the spine is serious, MRSA can and is successfully treated every day. I expect it will be susceptible to either vancomycin or linezolid, and these antibiotics are often lifesaving. I’ve got patients of mine right now that recovered from MRSA infections in bone, lung, blood, and bowel in the past.
Well that’s good to hear, thanks. They have tried Vancomycin and she got what sounds like Red Man Syndrome, but they’ve stopped with that antibiotic because of her reaction to it.
My grandma broke her hip and got MRSA in the bone during recovery. She spent six months on her back without part of her femur, but she was fine afterwards - walked again and everything. She was 86 freaking years old, an age where many people who break their hips with no complications at all never get out of bed again.
My dad recovered from serious MRSA infections of both his cerebrospinal fluid and his blood. And, he was in a coma and essentially braid dead after both major brain damage and surgery at the time. He also had bad reactions to some of the antibiotics, which slowed things down. He almost died, but he made it through.
Internal MRSA infections are scary and dangerous, but certainly survivable. At least they are aware of the problem and she’s able to get the treatment she needs. Hope she’s better soon and that there aren’t any other issues that are going to make her recovery more complicated.
If they aren’t seeing one already, an infectious disease specialist needs to be consulted ASAP!
I snapped my kneecap a few years back, and had to undergo surgery to pin/wire it back together. At the one-week post surgical check-up, I was concerned about the redness and swelling of the surgical area - but the “Doctor” (…damn dipshit osteopath idiot…) waved me off and said it was all normal post-surgical reactions, come back in a month for a recheck. He refused to perform any bloodwork to check for potential problems. Four days later - dramatic swelling, increased pain, nasty discharge, and rapidly darkening skin over the surgical site promped me to call 911 for a trip to the ER. MRSA throughout the whole knee joint, and a white cell count of 79,000…
I spent a month in the hospital, in quasi-quarantine, had multiple resurgeries to crack open and flush out the knee, and a battery of antibiotics overseen by the head infectious disease honcho. (Thank you Dr. Crislip! Shameless plug: See his stuff on www.sciencebasedmedicine.org) I also racked up over four months at a ‘skilled nursing facility’ and another 10 day hospital vacation with three more surgeries to further clean out the knee.
All told, I ended up with just over a year’s worth of antibiotics. Unfortunatly, the knee is toast (the knee ended up fused, no movement whatsoever) but I still have my leg -and my life- and can get around fairly well at a moderate gimp.
Moral of the story: Get to an infectious disease specialist!!
She is getting better, actually! Christmas will be spent in the hospital, but it appears the infection is starting to regress. She is having issues with side effects, however, and her skin is peeling off, which is very painful for her. She’s on pain medication and seems to be in decent spirits.
They’ll be assessing the nerve damage in the coming weeks and hope she hasn’t lost much mobility.
There are a raft of specialists following her case, including people from the CDC, and Infection Disease Specialists, so she’s in really good hands.
A question - can people be genetically predisposed to contracting MRSA easier? Her father had it as well, if I recall correctly.
I don’t have an answer for your question, but my immediate family seems to get staph infections more than is usual. A couple months ago my 17-year-old sister had such a bad MRSA infection on her lower leg they were thinking amputation might be a risk, for a few days there. My dad has gotten staph infections/MRSA several times as well (usually skin stuff, except for the time I mentioned above), as has my other sister, and while I never went to the hospital for them I used to get boils (most commonly caused by staph) all the time.
I think it’s a matter of a weaker immune system more than anything. My dad’s was a bit fragile even before his brain injury (and has a lot more issues now) and we all inherited it. Lots of ear/nose/throat issues, migraines, skin problems.
I have two thoughts on that; the first is that if someone in the immediate family has MRSA, it’s easily transmitted. The second is that I suspect there are family susceptibilities and immunities - I can’t remember the last time someone in my family got a skin infection.
I’m glad to hear that the OP’s friend’s daughter is doing better, and I apologize for the hijack.
By “osteopath” do you mean: 1.) a form of alternative medicine in Europe, or 2.) a physician in the United States with a DO degree?
I ask because there is a big distinction between those choices and I’m concerned that you might be making an inappropriate and unfortunate generalization about the latter that I don’t want to let go unchallenged. I can only imagine how tough it was to deal with losing the ability to BEND YOUR LEG, but that doesn’t warrant the criticism I suspect I’m seeing here.
I say this as an “allopath” (MD) student, and it’s something I feel very strongly about. If my suspicions were misplaced, I apologize.
Khan, I’m not pythonzzz but he appears to be US-based. I’ve seen more issues of not wanting to get a different specialist in Over There than Over Here, but that’s only my personal experience and by no means do I expect it to be representative of the usual procedures.
I’m scheduled for surgery on Jan. 4 and my pre-op instructions include two successive days of scrubbiing my entire body with a chlorhexidine product. After reading this thread, I assure you that I’m going to be following those instructions to the letter! :eek:
