brossa, so if I’m understanding you correctly, the hospital MAY be able to answer if anyone else had staph, but they cannot answer WHO had staph?
What a bizarre situation.
I hope there is public follow up on this.
ivylass, no, I don’t think that they can say anything at all, other than maybe “we had 256 people in the hospital that week.” Without a court order, I don’t believe that they can reveal that there was a person in the hospital being treated for X, even if any identifying data is redacted, because this does not fall under the HIPAA release guidelines (eg it’s not for medical research or billing, etc.) However, as I said I’m not a HIPAA expert.
It’s also possible that the attorneys were looking for hospital Morbidity and Mortality data, which is priviledged IIRC.
Maybe the attorney was asking for the records of the last 1000 women who gave birth at the first hospital, to see how many ended up with NF. Perhaps they asked for the records of all of the patients of doctor Z, the infectious disease guy, to see how many ended up with amputation. This poorly written article does not give us any really pertinent information; they could easily have stated what specific information the attorney was asking for!
According to the hospital’s web site, they have quite extensive maternity services. Perhaps the family unit is a recent addition and you’re operating off old information?
I stand corrected. I actually DID check the web site, believe it or not. :rolleyes:
There’s a bit more detail in this article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. She did contract a flesh-eating bacteria and she was apparently informed that the choice was the multiple amputation or death. The first article made it seem like she went in for childbirth and mysteriously left as an amputee.
Indeed. This is now a different beast altogether.
Here, for example, is a much better-written article that actually conveys useful information:HeraldToday.com
So she probably already has her own medical records; she wants other folks’ records. Frankly, even if she could show that there was another person in the hospital with NF or TSS, it’s another thing entirely to show that there was direct transmission from one to the other.
Some info on puerperal fever. It would be interesting to know what her Group B Strep status was, and what the circumstances of the delivery were - early rupture of membranes? Perineal injury?
On preview: spend less time reading other, **itty message boards and more time typing on the Dope!
According to the Orlando Sentinel:
The Orlando Sentinel article had this sentence, which I find amusing for some reason, “She is now at home in Sanford, where she has a remote-controlled wheelchair.” Do they mean powered wheelchair and not remote-controlled?
As for her situation, I’m very sympathetic, but I’m not sure she should get the records of other patients.
I don’t think it’s her that wants those records but her lawyer does.
You’re right, this article does have more information. It’s not “I went to deliver my baby and I came out like this,” Mejia said as it states in the article I linked to. It sounds like they needed to do this to save her life.
Still, I would be wondering how this happened, not only for closure but to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s rather frightening to think you can go in for something as routine as childbirth and leave the hospital sans limbs. Could the hospital still be liable in some way, maybe poor sterilization of instruments?
I’m sorry, that came out wrong. Of course they did it to save her life. I meant to say that she knew they needed to operate to save her life.
IANAD, but Staph and Strep are everywhere. Since it is 8 months removed from the situation, there is likely never going to be a definitive answer. She could have already had the bacteria as brossa suggested. She could have been exposed if her husband or anyone else in the room during the delivery didn’t wash their hands well, or didn’t wear a hair cover or a surgical mask. She could have brought something with her to the hospital that infected her (ie. underwear that were damp when they were packed). She could have infected herself by not washing her hands before she went to the bathroom after delivery. Of course, she could have been infected by a careless doctor or nurse. Once an infection like that gets a foothold, you are lucky to live. Her sons could be motherless. Shit happens and there are no guarantees. This sounds very harsh, I do feel for the woman, I am just not sure that the hospital is necessarily to blame. If I were in the next bed with an embarassing infected hemoroid, I wouldn’t want my chart with my name blacked out with a Sharpie to become public record. You know someone would figure out that the week I was “on vacation” was the same week that this woman was sharing a room with someone with an infected hemoroid and that I was sitting a little funny when I got back. Then everyone knows that xbuckeye had an infected hemoroid that ended up costing a poor woman her arms and legs.
Scarily enough, even in developed first-would countries you can still catch stuff like this for no discernible reason. If the hospital were careless with hygenie it would make it much more likely (the NHS has big problems like this because of poor hospital cleaning) but short of autoclaving everything in the hospital including the patients there is no way of eliminating the risk of infection.
Staph is rampant in hospitals- you won’t find a facility that doesn’t harbor it. Why? Because it is drug-resistant in the extreme.
Scary but a fact of life.
Holy shit. That does it-if I ever get pregnant, screw the hospital, I’ll hire a midwife!
Just remember to think of this story the next time you demand the doctor give you antibiotics for a cold because you just have to get back to work, and refuse to listen when she tries to explain that they wont help and only increase resistance, and continue to argue that the last doctor you went to always gave you antibiotics when you had these symptoms and they always worked in 2-3 days, nevermind the doctor telling you that you will be fine in 2-3 days regardless.
Yeah-it’s my pet peeve as a doctor-what of it?
Damn good pet peeve. We’ve been warned for years about the overuse of antibiotics. Not sure that’s what’s happened in the case here, though, but good point.
I do my part - I don’t buy anti-biotic hand soap. And as some of my co-workers have found out, it’s really easy to get me to give a lecture on it.