Dirty Hospital Suits

[Woman51960]

I contracted this nasty bug at a hospital in Aug 2005. Despite many many many courses of vanco, broth in KS, probiotics and other remedies I still can not rid myself of this bug and the awful symptoms. I have been suffering with this for 1.5 years now. I do not know the strain of it, but I suspect it may be the 027 type.

I have contacted several attorneys in my area to find out if I could file a claim against the hosptial. My PCP, GI and a cdiff specialist all believe I contracted this bug at the hospital when I had a hysterectomy. It seems in my state of Virginia the overall respsonse is: "the hospital infection control policy" is privileged information and the attorneys cannot get access to it. Without the information the claim would be denied as we would not be able to prove negligence on the hospitals behalf. I have written letters to the hospital, senators, and department of health. They all want to belittle this disease and play it down. It is "just unfortunate".

I was always in the past an average normal healthy person, and since cannot seem to recover to my before state.

I have read the article in the AARP about the dirty hospitals and I feel they should be held responsible. Until something is done to make these hospitals responsible they will continue spreading the infection. Many innocent people have suffered and will continue to suffer unless something is done.

Does anyone on this site know of anyone who has had success finding an attorney willing to take on the difficult task of holding these facilities responsible for someone contracting cdiff? I believe if we could find some attorneys to challenge the hospitals the disease would get more attention in the public and we would be taken seriously.

This illness has caused me thousands of dollars from lost employment, doctor bills, medicine, and loss of sexual companionship. I am always to ill to even get in the mood, and also fear spreading the bug. Does anyone here know of an attorney who has been successful or willing to take on this type of case.

[Sheila1]

Unfortunately, lawsuits have been limited to patient negligence issues (improper diagnosis, improper treatment, etc.), not the general fact that a person had acquired the disease. I'm not a lawyer or doctor - but I don't believe it's possible for one to "prove" CDiff was acquired in/from a particular place - because one can acquire it at anytime, anywhere, and have it for months or years without symptoms until an antibiotic is taken, or other contributing factor such as weakened immune system, that causes it to overtake the gut. Even a negative test prior to admission and a positive test after admission wouldn't "prove" it because the false-negative rate on the tests is too high and a negative is not uncommon in a person that is not clinically ill at the time of the test (there are carriers who never have a symptom).

This means, you could have acquired the spores 5 months or 5 years or more before your surgery and simply not known it, because your own immune system took care of it like it's supposed to do -- until the antibiotics for your surgery were given. Keep in mind too, that your own immune system does have alot to do with the severity of the disease. The NAP1/027 strain is not incurable (there is a poster on the site that had that strain confirmed and she has been in remission for quite some time) but it is more virulent and harder to treat.

You would pretty much have to prove the doctor or healthcare facility gave it to you "on purpose" to be successful in a lawsuit.

Let me explain even further just how easy one might pick up the disease - a CDiff carrier uses the restroom in a restaurant and doesn't wash their hands, touches the stall knob, the door knob. You go in (anytime within the next 90 days or so!) and wash your hands afterwards but touch the door knob to exit; then you go eat some french fries with your fingers. And there you have it. Or that same CDiff carrier is the one who touched and rolled up your silverware in a napkin. That's just a couple scenarios of how it can be acquired...I could make up a million ways.

We all feel a need, at some time or another, to blame someone or something and make them pay!! It's an horrendous illness to battle. I distinctly remember, in the early and severe days of my illness and before I learned more about the transmission of the disease, desperately wanting to go back to the hospital and SLAP every nurse upside the head!! Oh, how I wanted to pinpoint "someone" for putting me through this! But it just isn't possible.

Many (I didn't say all) hospitals are trying to do everything possible to eradicate various common hospital infections. Not only for patient reasons but for staff reasons too - staff are just as likely to get something because they're "in" it 8 to 12 hours a day. There has not been a truly successful cleaning product for CDiff spores, until recently (Osprey developed a steam cleaner) and no hand cleaner truly successful against the spores until recently. Reduction was hugely possible, but not eradication - until recently. Even when these things are in place everywhere worldwide, hospitals - by the very nature of their business - will always be inherently 'dangerous' places.

I finally decided my energy, however much there was of it, would be much better spent trying to help people suffering with the disease and help people get more educated about the disease - and especially try to figure out ways to get more information and awareness to the general public AND medical field. Education about the disease is the critical missing link everywhere, especially for healthcare providers, in my opinion.

I understand your frustration, truly. We all do.

Sheila

[Woman51960]

I understand your thoughts and have done much education on it myself about how it can be contracted. Here is my problem. I had never visited this hospital before, this was the first time I had ever gone to that hospital.

While I was a patient there for 3 days nobody ever came into my room to clean. From years ago when I had my babies, I remembered that the nurses use to come into the room and measure how much urine a patient produced. They emptied the container and did a little bit of cleaning. On a daily basis I use to see someone from housekeeping come in, change the sheets and clean the restroom. This did not happen at all and I was there for 3 days. None of the nurses wore rubber gloves either. Even when I asked them to remove my catheter-no gloves were used.

A week after coming home from the hospital I received a call from the hospital doing a follow-up survey on my stay. At that time I relayed to them how unprofessional I thought there facility was. I told them I had never been to a hospital where housekeeping did not come into the rooms daily to clean. I also relayed the fact that none of the nurses or doctors used gloves or hand cleansers. Remind you-this was prior to me knowing I would be sick with cdiff. I didn't even know what cdiff was at that time, but I did know that "this was not ususal hospital procedures".

I have been in the hospitals on 3 different occassions as as a patient in New England, but I have never been in once so dirty, nasty and unprofessional as the one where I received my hysterectomy. Hindsight-I should have checked out the hospitals infection control policy prior to being admitted. Being uneducated and not realizing the dangers that I would be exposed to be I put my trust in my Gynecologist. My wound never did seem to heal correctly, and I had to go back to the doctor several times. He just kept prescribing antibiotics for the infection. You can believe what you want, but I know for a fact and my PCP does too that I caught the cdiff at the hospital. The minute I mentioned to him I was starting to have alot of "D", he told me I needed to see someone else as he didn't know how to treat me. When I was finally diagnosed with "cdiff" I called him back and told him. He said, "I am not surprised".

I know every individual case is different and there are spores lurking everywhere, but in my case I am 100% sure I contracted it at the hospital. The medical professional and hospitals play it down as they don't want to take responsibility for their "dirty" staff. Until they are held responsible and have to "pay", just like we did they will not try to correct the problem. It is easier to put the blame elsewhere, then they don't have to spend thousands of dollars educating their staff and paying to clean up their hospital.

[Sheila1]

Woman,

That's a terrible story and I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. It's bad enough to get the disease, but to be certain you got it under those conditions makes it even worse. I wish you the very best of luck if you do pursue the case.

Sheila