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Dangerous HospitalsI recently watched a heartbreaking story on NBC'S DATELINE about the dangers of infections in this country's hospitals. How does a healthy 28 year old woman give birth to a healthy baby boy and die 12 hours later? It's apparantly not that unusal and most people do not know that it's happening...all the time. In fact, nearly 100,000 people a year die after contracting bacterial infections while in the hospital; such as Strep. and Staph., which are rampant in all hospitals despite the precautions to avoid the problem. Julie had a good pregnancy...her first one. She entered the hospital with the desire of having a natural, unmedicated birth. That quickly changed as the contractions grew stonger while labor progressed. She asked for an epidural and was given one. It worked...well, too effectively. She became numb from her neck down. The epidural was discontinued. As she began to experince pain again, another epidural was inserted. This time she received no relief. After quite awhile , the Anesthesiologist returned to discover that the tube had disconnected from the area where it was inserted into the back, and he clicked it back into place.The epidural became effective, Julie progressed well and delivered her son without any other complications. Just a couple of hours later, Julie began to complain of a headache. This grew worse as the hours went by despite a strong pain killer administered. Her temperature contained to climb higher and higher. Benedryl was given and then an anti-biotic was prescribed BUT NEVER GIVEN. She started to yell that she didn't want to die as she deliriously pulled the I.V. out of her arm. Her husband watched in horror and disbelief as FINALLY the hospital staff came into the room and took the situation seriously. Julie was rushed to I.C.U. A blood test and X-rays were quickly taken and it was determined that Julie had contracted a fatal bacterial infection that had quickly gone to her brain causing it to severally swell. She became unconscious, was put on a Life-support machine and declared brain-dead. Her family made the agonizing decision to take her off of Life support and let her go...approximately 12 hours after giving birth to her child. Chris, her husband, later stated that the Anesthesiologist was busy going from hospital room to hospital room. Although he was gloved, not masked, he was touching his pager with his gloved hands. The hospital also issued a statement saying that Julie most likely came to the hospital carrying the bacterial infection, although a blood test was given upon arrival and her white-cell count was perfectly normal. They also denied the possibilty of her catching the bacteria in the hospital itself or from anyone working there. although the most likely scenero was that the bacteria entered at the base of the spine during the epidural and then traveled into the brain quickly. It was later determined that had Julie been prescibed AND given an antibiotic right away after the headache and spiking fever had begun , she would most likely be alive today. Why do I find the need to write this story on this website? Because "ignorance is NOT bliss" ...because we all can and could of avoided situations in our lives IF someone would of just told us ahead of time...and because there definately are better and healthier alternatives then birthing your precious baby in a possible dangerous hospital enviroment, unless absolutely necessary. Information brings knowledge and perhaps knowledge brings a wise decision. |