Cdiff and knee replacement

[bleichrodt]

My mom (69 years old) contracted CDiff at a hospital a couple years ago after a minor surgery and almost died from it after relapsing 3 times. Her doctor now feels she is healthy enough to have a total knee replacement. She will be in the hospital for a few days and then a rehab center for a week to ten days. We are very concerned that she may get Cdiff again. I am hoping someone might suggest some questions we should ask the surgeon about the precautions that will be taken to prevent this. Also, should we make sure that we ask everyone that touches her to wear gloves and wash their hands? I have heard of people taking in their own Clorox wipes (or bleach) to wipe down the bed rails, phone, nurse buttons, bathroom, etc. It that a good idea?

[Nancy1]

You are wise to be concerned that your mom is at risk of getting cdiff again. If I were you, I would contact her GI or ID doc from her previous experience, if those docs are available; if not, get a referral to one of those specialists. I agree that everyone who touches her should wear gloves and wash their hands. And I think that taking your own wipes is another good idea. As you are all too well aware, hospitals have all kinds of "bugs" and anything you can do to reduce their numbers has to help. I would ask the surgeon and the GI/ID doc about what antibiotic(s) she might get during this surgery. Ask if a narrow-spectrum one will work, rather than a wide-spectrum one. See the FAQ section for info about antibiotics most associated with cdiff. Good luck.

[bleichrodt]

Thanks Nancy! I have a couple more questions/comments. They had my mom in isloation for a week or so after one of her relapses and then put her in a shared room while she was still having severe diarreah at least 15-20 times a day. (I was still bringing her Depends) An Aid came in to change her IV and wasn't wearing gloves. I mentioned to him that he might want to put some on as she had CDiff. He looked at her chart, rolled his eyes around and said "No, she just has severe diarreah." He showed me the chart and that is what it said. I told him she had just been removed from isolation. He left for about 20 minutes and came back in and put on gloves, changed the IV and didn' tsay anything. The next day or so I stood in the shared bathroom while she took a shower and of course the CDiff diarreah "exited" her body while she was showering. Nothing was done about it.

In fact, when she was in the emergency room during one of her relapses they had her using a common bathroom used by all of the emergency room patients. Several times she didn't quite make it to the toilet so I asked for "stuff" to clean up. They just gave me some towels and I left them in the bathroom. Theysaid someone would take care of them. I said she had CDiff but it was as if they didn't even know what it was. I explained it to them but they didn't seem to take it seriously. They made me feel as if I was an over reactor.
And this is at a good hospital.

Sorry for the rambling, but I am getting very nervous as my mom's surgery is coming up.


Twice, her old doctor gave the official diagnosis as severe diarreah when it was actually CDiff. I found this after obtaining her records from the hospital - CDiff was mentioned after the official diagnosis. When we got a new doctor he actually had (sorry for the vulgar expression but it was a hard time for us) "the balls" to list her official diagnosis as CDiff.


Is that common practice in hospitals to list CDiff as "severe diarreah" and then mention CDiff in the body of the report?

If she is in a room with someone with severe diarreah should I ask for her to be moved?

Thanks for your help,
Denise

[Nancy1]

Your mom's story makes me cringe. I do not know if it is common practice to list cdiff as "severe diarrhea." If it is, I definitely think that should be changed!! I think cdiff ought to be flagged on a chart. And staff should be educated. You might want to contact the person at your hospital who is in charge of infectious disease, and/or hygiene. Way too many people are getting cdiff at hospitals these days.

I would ask for her to be moved if she is in a room with someone with severe diarrhea. I think we cannot be too careful after we have had cdiff.