Hospital infections cause 48,000 deaths... in one year

[bik0]

Beware, going to the hospital can be hazardous to your health...

Hospital infections killed 48,000, report shows
Pneumonia, blood-borne diseases cost $8.1 billion in 2006

updated 4:38 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 22, 2010
WASHINGTON - Pneumonia and blood-borne infections caught in U.S. hospitals killed 48,000 patients and cost $8.1 billion in 2006, according to a report released on Monday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35526643/ns/health-infectious_diseases

[EvolveOrConvolve]

1. The next time I have cancer

I'll make sure not to go to the hospital.

[Peregrine Took]

2. My 85 year old sister in law came down with pseudomonas -

went into a coma, went on daily dialysis and came out of it unscathed. Incredible, but she did it. She has a tremendous will to live.

[bik0]

3. Hospitals must learn from errors, prevent infections

Author: Hospitals must learn from errors, prevent infections
Updated 21h 39m ago | Comments 23 | Recommend 9 E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions |

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
When 18-month-old Josie King arrived at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, she had blistering burns on 60% of her body, caused by scalding bath water produced by a broken water heater.
Josie seemed to receive the best of care and had surgery to transplant skin grafts onto her scarred body.

Yet Josie's mother, Sorrel, who slept on a cot by the girl's side for weeks, noticed the baby getting sicker just days before she was supposed to go home. Josie was so thirsty, for example, that she resorted to sucking on a wet washcloth during her bath. Although Josie's mother, nurses and a pain specialist all tried to voice their concerns, the surgeons in charge of the case didn't listen.

By the time doctors recognized that Josie's dehydration was caused by a serious infection, it was too late. Josie died after a preventable catheter infection — perhaps caused by someone who failed to take proper sanitary precautions — spread into her bloodstream.

Josie was one of the thousands of patients who suffer as a result of a "toxic" hospital culture, in which doctors feel they need to be infallible and nurses and patients are afraid to speak up, says Peter Pronovost, a Johns Hopkins professor and author of the new book Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals (Hudson Street Press, $25.95).

Hospitals can't improve if they don't acknowledge their errors and try to learn from them, he says.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-03-01-medicalerrors01_st_N.htm

[azurnoir]

4. 13 years ago this week I almost died from a

hospital infection it was strep A also known as flesh eating bacteria that developed in the incision of a c-section, I spent a month in ICU on a ventilator most of the time because I also developed ARDS after being over sedated, then after skin graft surgery developed Pseudomonas in the area from which the graft was taken
To find out that the hospital infection rate has not improved is disturbing but hardly surprising as for me I would think twice about having any unnecessary or vanity surgery the risks are just too great

[finn78]

5. Give me a chemical suit

I hate going to the hospital even to visit someone. I feel like putting on a space suit or a chemical suit before I go. Surely, with the technology we have today, we could create a safer environment. I wonder how doctors and nurses feel about going to work in such a health hazard?

[BuddhaGirl]

6. +1

I feel the same way!