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MUM's PAIN AT MRSA NIGHTMARE: I Scrubbed Dirt and Stains From Floor of Son's Hospital Room

Posted on: Tuesday, 29 November 2005, 12:00 CST

By JOANNE McELGUNN

A DEVOTED mother today reveals how she scrubbed the filthy floor of a hospital room in which her paralysed son lay ill with the flesh- eating bug MRSA.

Noleen Friel got down on her hands and knees to clean dirt from the floor in a private room in Tallaght Hospital.

She said: "My son had open wounds after a serious operation and was also battling MRSA and yet they placed him in this filthy room.

"It was appalling, disgusting. I could not leave him in such filthy conditions, so I scrubbed the floor. They were ingrained with dirt and stains. It was very, very distressing."

Her 31-year-old son, who was paralysed from the neck down in a swimming accident in 1998, is one of hundreds of people whose lives have been destroyed by the potentially fatal bacteria.

Noleen, from Co Kildare, added: "After the accident my son was making good progress and looking forward to going back to work. Hopes were very high that he was going to lead an independent life.

"But in 2000 that all changed when he contracted MRSA after a series of operations on his thighs.

"Even five years later the wounds on his legs needed to be dressed every morning, 365 days a year. He is a prisoner in our home. MRSA has destroyed his life.

"It wasn't enough that at the age of 24 he was confined to a wheelchair but then to contract MRSA - it's like a death sentence."

A spokeswoman for Tallaght Hospital said she couldn't comment on individual cases.

But she added: "The control of the spread of MRSA in hospitals is a big challenge for hospitals in Ireland and abroad.

"We have a very active infection control team in our hospitals and to ensure that we have best practice in relation to infection control, we continuously research ways of improving it within the hospital."

MRSA - Staphylococcus Aureus - is now rampant in Irish hospitals and each year around 6,000 people test positive for the bug.

Most people just carry it on their skin, but nearly 10 per cent will go on to develop life-threatening bloodstream infections.

Last year 553 people developed serious infections - up from 55 cases in 1995.

And the figures continue to rise. In the first six months of this year a total of 314 people were left battling for their lives after the bacteria entered their bloodstream.

Ireland has the highest rate of MRSA in Europe with 119.3 cases per million - more than twice that of Portugal, which is the next the next most affected with 46.5 cases per million.

No one - from new born babies to frail pensioners - have escaped the rampaging path this horrifying infection is carving through Irish hospitals.

Last December a baby was born carrying MRSA in Cavan General Hospital after her mother contracted the bug six months into her pregnancy while being treated for pneumonia in the hospital.

Today she lives in daily terror her baby daughter will cut herself, sending the bacteria into her bloodstream. She said: "MRSA has left a terrible threat hanging over my daughter's head. She is an innocent little baby. I am terrified she will develop an infection. No one should be going through this."

In the past decade hundreds of people have died after contracting MRSA, but no one in authority is willing or able to provide an official death toll.

Margaret Dawson, who set up the group MRSA And Families in May after her husband contracted the superbug, has been contacted by 600 people - more than 120 of whom have lost loved ones to the bug.

She revealed: "At least 20 per cent of calls are from people whose relatives have died from MRSA.

"The infection literally cannibalises the body. It is killing people, leaving others life-long invalids and destroying families and marriages.

"The authorities are trying to keep us in the dark about MRSA and how rampant it is. Once it is diagnosed it is all about secrecy, cover-up and building walls of silence. It is a disgrace.

"Up until recently MRSA wasn't even entered into a patient's medical file, let alone on their death certificate when it killed them. It is spreading like wildfire and there is no accountability."

Margaret, a mother of four from Co Kilkenny, was never told Joe had contracted MRSA while in a Dublin hospital for spinal surgery in March last year.

She said: "He was only home eight days when his wound literally burst open. He spent the following seven months in hospital because the wound would not close.

"We were only told that he had an infection. It was left up to a whistleblower - someone with our best concerns at heart - to tell us that it was MRSA.

"The infection has destroyed his life. He is not able to walk, he cannot work, he has to be helped to dress and wash. He can't drive a car. He is only 59 and has no quality of life.

"He was a hard-working man and took great pride in being a great provider, husband and father. MRSA has taken away his whole quality of life."

Since setting up MRSA And Families she has heard countless stories of horror and heartbreak.

Margaret said: "People who contracted the infection after having heart surgery have had to have their breast bones removed.

"Other people have had limbs amputated. I spoke to a lady the other day who went into hospital to have a splinter removed from her big toe and ended-up having to have it amputated after she contracted MRSA.

"It has killed countless people and is destroying families all over the country."

The Government is facing hundreds of lawsuits - some of them multi-million euro claims - from people who lost relatives or their health to MRSA.

Last month Kilkenny grandmother Anne Brennan's family began proceedings by lodging papers in the High Court.

The 68-year-old has been rendered paraplegic by MRSA after going into St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny to be treated for a threatened hernia last November.

Within 48 hours of coming home she experienced "excruciating pain". Several days later she developed septicemia and her whole system began to shut down. She now lies helpless in a hospital bed.

Her compensation claim, if successful, could spark a deluge of cases and expose the Government to a legal and compensation bill of tens, if not hundreds, of millions.

Galway-based solicitor Ian Simon is already representing up to 100 clients, while dozens more legal firms have between one and 30 cases on their books.

An audit of Irish hospitals revealed 90 per cent fell below acceptable hygiene levels.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed the highest rate of bloodstream MRSA infections are in large hospitals, such as the Mater (77 cases in 2004) and St James's Hospital (65 cases in 2004).

Source: Daily Mirror

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