Hospitals: Go in 'healthy'...come out 'sick'

I'm beginning to wonder just how 'sanitary' a hospital or any other medical facility really is.

Medical regulations implementAseptic conditions, and yet, how is it that a supposedly healthy individual can enter a hospital, and then leave sick. Or worse. Possibly die in the hospital while having contracted a dangerous disease?

LINK

Seven or eight patients at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital have died in an outbreak of 107 cases of the deadly Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infection over the past year.

The hospital said yesterday there are six patients in the hospital with active C. difficile now.

The infection causes diarrhea and more serious intestinal conditions such as colitis and is the most common infection in hospitals and long-term care facilities.

C. difficile has claimed some 2,000 lives in Quebec since 2003 and turns up in hospitals from Toronto to Sault Ste. Marie.

The 107 patients contracted the infection while in Jo Brant

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[Side Related Note)
I'm at a high-risk of contracting any flu's, colds, et al. I'm a healthy individual, however, because I perform residential cleaning, I'm 'more suseptible' to pick up whatever germs that may reside in peoples' homes. Chances are, if my customer has come down with the flu, and hasn't warned me ahead of time, I will most likely get the flu. The unfortunate thing is that I can't get a flu shot - allergic to certain chemicals in the shot. Now, I come down with the flu, and the symptoms don't come into play, for a week or two, what are the chances that I'm passing it on to others unsuspectingly? Probably 100% right?

The Bigger Scale:

Let's take a look at the 'waiting room'. Germs are abounding. They're in the air, on the seats, and coming out of the person beside you - who's hacking and wheezing like no tomorrow.

I know that hospitals have 'stands' at the entrance door that provide sanitary hand washs, and will provide masks, but how often do the hospital cleaners come by and wipe down the chairs, tables and other things in the waiting room?

More and more, hospitals are becoming sources of infection. Dr. William Jarvis, chief of investigation and prevention for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Hospital Infections Program, estimates that at least 80,000 patients die each year from infections they acquire after entering the hospital. That makes hospital infections the nation's fourth most common cause of death, accounting for more mortalities than car accidents and homicides combined. Jarvis believes that about 5 to 10 percent of patients -- from 1.75 million to 3.5 million people annually -- contract infections while hospitalized, a rate experts estimate has probably increased at least 50 percent in the last decade.

LINK

My brother informed me today of a man contracting the Super Bug at the hospital down the street from me. The man had apparently been healthy (he visited his wife who was sick - not from the super bug] and he himself had died from this bug. He was apparently healthy when he went into the hospital.

Anyone worried about visiting the hospitals?

I'm saying this without reading into the difference between Canada's hospitals and our (UK).

But I think you got it better than us on the hospital infection front - the UK is constantly scoring low in Europe. And we throw serious money at the problem - something's wrong.

Thing is superbugs are a vicious cycle, they are super cos they don't die with the poison they are men't to die with, they will thrive while you retro design the old poisons. By the time you got the bugs licked - a few have mutated (give a creationist a superbug!) and a few of the mutated will not die from the new poison.


Edit - correct image



[edit on 15/11/2007 by Now_Then]

I've worked hospitals for >25 years and a little common sense goes a long way. I've never caught anything more serious than what I could have caught at wal-mart and I've never brought anything home to my family.
Hospitals are understaffed and the nurses are grossly overworked which leads to cutting corners.
I once had a G.I. bleeder (someone who throws up blood-usually due to long term alcoholism) erupt like Mt. St. Helens. Five nurses rushed into the room to "save" him while I took my time to put on personal protective gear before entering. Five nurses contracted Hepatitis B from that guy and I wasn't one of them.
You have to be thoroughly familiar with modes of transmission and, sadly, not all nurses are. To be fair, doctors are the worst offenders. In almost 30 years of bedside care, I have never once seen a doctor do a sterile dressing change. They come in wearing street clothes, touch well-handled charts, elevator buttons, countertops, doorknobs, telephones and then go in to assess the patient with their unwashed, ungloved hands.
Families are the 2nd biggest offenders. We have people wearing TB masks so their families can visit and the family will remove the mask (either theirs or the patients or both) to give their loved one a kiss, then walk right up to the nurses station and cough all over you without covering their mouths. I wonder why we even bother with precautions.
In this day and age where the almighty benjamins are the focus of health care, it pays to be an informed consumer.

With a family member with a very bad immune system due to a hereditary disease, I am well aware of the problem with hospitals. Especially the emergency room.

It is so scary that doctors have had my son wait at home for hours after a culture came back that they felt HAD to be treated in the hospital. Then have him taken straight to a room.

I avoid them like the plague, no pun intended.

I found a really good homemade recipe that is an alternative to the flu shot and I'm guessing it will probably work for any other "bug" because it boosts the immune system. It's made from all organic ingredients. Part of the instructions refer to adding your "magic" which you can take it or leave it... but aside from that, it seems to be an excellent recipe and I'll be making some myself in the next week or so.

Grab a few handfuls of the following, all fresh: ginger, onion, horseradish, garlic, & lemon. Roughly chop them up and pack into a 1-quart canning jar, leaving a few inches at the top. Add anywhere from 1/2 to 2 teaspoons (or more if you like it really spicy!) of cayenne pepper. Cover with organic raw apple cider vinegar. Cover the top of the jar with a square of waxed paper before placing lid on, then seal. This is to stop the acid in the vinegar corroding the metal lid.

Shake well and leave on your kitchen counter, out of direct sunlight. Every time you walk by that jar, give it another shake. You may also want to talk to it, sing, recite poetry, smudge sacred herbs, dance, tell it a good joke or whatever you like to make your medicine more potent.

For two weeks, shake the jar and do your magic. At the end of two weeks, pour it through a kitchen strainer, wash your canning jar out well, and return the liquid to the jar. You may want to add, at this point, a few tablespoons glycerin (which will give it a pleasant sweetness, a nice foil for the hot, tart taste) or honey. If you add honey, you’ll need to refrigerate it, but glycerin requires no refrigeration. I strongly recommend buying some 2 ounce dropper bottles because you’ll want a bottle a your desk, in your kitchen, by your bedside, and in the car. Use liberally to boost immunity, fight infection, soothe the throat, open the sinuses, stimulate circulation and energy, and generally improve health. Add to soup or salad to spice them up and give a boost-though I usually just drop it directly into my mouth.

Source: Herbal Alternatives to the Flu Shot (Part 1)

Keep in mind that this will work best for people who are not already suppressing their immune systems by consuming processed foods. It will probably work best for those who are eating a healthy diet.

I use colloidal silver for most ailments that have a contagion factor and wear a mini-mate ionizer around my neck to prevent breathing in anything that won't wash off with Babo. Simple, cheap and effective prevention/treatment. In my line of work, I can't afford to live in fear and I can't afford to be blasse' about my working environment, either.

BTW, those little alcohol-based foam hand-sanitizers that are posted on the wall outside every patients room don't do a thing to prevent the spread of C-diff. You must wash your hands with soap and water and use vigorous mechanical action of rubbing the germs off your hands.

Originally posted by whitewave
walk right up to the nurses station and cough all over you without covering their mouths.

Ya know, people are just that way. My sisters husband will cough and sneeze on people like its nothing. When I say on people, he doesn't turn his head or cover. He blows it all right on ya. We'll be at the dinner table and he does the same thing around food. It disgust me to no end.

Is it no wonder that many people are using hollistic methods to treat illnesses? Instead of relying on standard medical practices; to which can be very costly and [sometimes] ineffective, we are going back to 'home-cures.

When we visit the doctors and they give us antibiotics, our bodies are slowly but surely, building up an immunity to that particular antibiotic. If you ever had a chance to see a history of your medicinal doses, you'll never see 2 back to back 'same' antibiotics. Practitioners will mix them up.

We all know that we can't get an antibiotic for the flu. It's a virus. Only Bacteria can be treated with antibiotics. The Super Bug is bacterial, yet to my knowledge, there is no known antibiotic that can be brought to the front-line in our defense.

Because of cut-backs; due to financing or whatever, we have a shortage of nurses and doctors in Ontario. I've personally seen docs come in off the street in their 'civies' and practice medicine - emergency rooms.

As I previously stated, I wonder how much 'sanitizing' is done on a regular basis in the waiting rooms. I've sat with my son, for up to 8 hours or more - just waiting to be seen by the medical staff, then afterwards, escorted to a small room. 1 hour later, the doctor on call finally saw us.

Within the 8 hours of waiting, I hadn't seen any janitorial staff come in to clean. If these people clean at all, it wasn't within an 8-hour shift. If they only come in when the crowd is down to a dull roar, then that's alot of germs building up.

reply to post by TheDuckster


Where in Ontario do you live, so i can avoid that hospital even more than I do hospitals in general?

I work in a hospital pharmacy. The amounts of drugs they pump into these people is incredible. That's all they know.

reply to post by sc2099


If you're avoiding all hospitals in general, then it probably wouldn't mean anything to mention where I live.

For the record: Burlington

There is an old Chinese Proverb:

IF YOU WANT TO GET SICK, GO TO THE DOCTOR.

reply to post by Souljah


Never truer words.

Here's another devestating/heartbreaking situation from our Local News Channel:

CHCH News Video

(scroll to: "C. defficile issue" on right side)

[edit on 16-11-2007 by TheDuckster]

The general consensus is that handwashing is still the most effective means of preventing communicable diseases and the like.

However...here's a scary thought:

Can antibacterial soaps/products create ‘superbugs’ (germs that have become resistant to antibiotics)?

Yes. Antibacterial agents… potentially leave the resistant bacteria to survive and multiply and may promote the development of resistant genes, commonly referred to as ‘superbugs’

This LINK provides answers to frequently-asked questions regarding handwashing techniques.

As if it can't get any better...

I've been keeping up with this mornings local news channel and just heard of a deadly mutating cold virus in the U.S.

No cases reported in Canada (yet).

I've tried the search engines to see what comes up; have to wait for the T.V. to sync up with internet. (Patience...Ducky) I'll post the link shortly.

Originally posted by TheDuckster
As if it can't get any better...

I've been keeping up with this mornings local news channel and just heard of a deadly mutating cold virus in the U.S.

I just saw that news story here on CNN Headline News. I wouldn't take any kind of "vaccine" for any kind of "superbug". The plants nature provides have been sufficient for thousands of years. The reason drugs are pushed on us is because big business can't make their fortunes on plants.

Now that the fear-mongering has started, I'll be making my own medicine this weekend.

reply to post by NGC2736


I was just looking back over the posts, and then it 'dawned on me'.

I wonder how people with weakened immune systems cope with hospital visitations?

Save for severely compromised immunities, I wonder what extra precautions would people take, to over-come the hurdles of these 'supposed' sanitary establishments?

Yes and most people probably do have weakened immune systems because they consume processed food. The body can't protect itself if it's not getting the most important nutrients it needs and the body is being bombarded with dangerous chemicals. That's the standard American diet.