M.R.S.A. - Why is someone not suing the ass off the Health Services?

Our man in Havana

People will have very good reasons not to invoke a coroners review, as it will delay probate and insurance payouts etc.

I do agree people should invoke it more often.

Tom Young

Yes, I totally understand the delays. Greed aside, the main reason though for suggesting invokation of the coroner process is to have a valid conclusion as to cause of death. I have to admit to not liking this thread initially. Now I am affected by it, I have begun to notice that the HSE is literally getting away with blue murder.

The person in question was in hospital for elective and simple surgery. Never came out.

shadowgirl

hi all,

just wanted to say that my mum died on the 3rd of oct 2007, she had MRSA and what the docs wanted to put on the death cert was blood poisioning...no mention of MRSA!

i did ask for a post mortem, but was told that there was no cause for it because THEY knew what my mum died of, and when i said that i wanted a post mortem anyway, they informed me that i would have to pay for it.

the next day i had a chat with the doc who had been looking after my mum and asked what exactly was the cause of death...and he told me blood poisioning,and when i asked about the mrsa and he skated around the answer.

i insisted on him putting down the real cause of death on mums DC, which was blood poisioning and MRSA...which he tried to do, but was told he couldnt by senior doctors.

then i got a call from the coroners office and his assistent questioned me for a few minutes and said that the coroner would more than likely insist on a post mortem.

and i was told that i wouldnt have to pay for it.

after what we have just been through i have no faith in the hospital system here, so much so that if any member of my family had to go into hospital i was be extreamly stressed, because i would fear that they too would catch this awful bug.

i have heard so many stories of people catching MRSA in hospitals recently...isn't it about time something was done about this?
before more innocent people die like my mum did.

my mum was 73,and hadn't got a lot of life left, but hat she had got left was robbed from her, by dirty hospitals and irresponcible management and polititions who dont give a damm.

shadowgirl

edanto

Sorry to hear about your Mum and I support what you're trying to do in getting MRSA on the certificate - it seems like the profession are conscious that it won't register as a problem if it doesn't turn up in the statistics.

If you would like to, you could write a letter to Harney and tell her the trouble you had.

The rest of your family may find it difficult to focus on the cause, while everyone is still greiving, so take it nice and easy. I'm sorry for what you're all going through.

shadowgirl

hi edanto,

thank you for replying.

i had to laugh when u said in your post "write to mary harney"

i did this when mum was being left in the ward with other patients who hadn't got MRSA when mum was first dignosed.

and the day after my mum died i recieved a reply from Mary Harneys office.

saying how sorry she was at my mums unfortunate stay at the hospitals, then proceeded to tell me about all her policies on MRSA and at the end of this letter it said" i hope this claryfies things for you"

needless to say i was extremly angry.
and i tried to ring Mary Harneys office, but i couldn't even get her assistant, which is probley just as well, because he/she would have got a earful from me.

now i do realise that Mary Harney had no way of knowing that the letter would come to me the day after my mum had died.

but what really angers me is the lack of understanding of what the family members go through when they see their loved one going from being on the mend,to being in critical conditition, then to be told they have to go into the special unit and wear this huge uncomfortable mask,then being put back onto the ward...a ward where people had no idea that mum had MRSA.

and it was only when i found mum hanging over the side of the bed with her face leaning on the rails of the bed with the curtains pulled around her, that mum was finally moved to isolation, because i lost it and complained to patients services

and your on what i jokingly called red alert, because you never knew when you would have to hop out of bed in the middle of the night because you would be called into the hospital because your loved one has taken a bad turn and so forth.
my family and i went through this or four months!!!!

and all the while having to leave our mum with a hospital we no longer trusted.
by the time mum died we were so emotionally wrecked that we could barely manage the funeral.


please god when i get my mums post mortem results are back I will be writing to Mary Harney again, and will continue to do so for as long as i need to, until something is done about this.

you are right about my family, they think i am wasting my time...but if everyone sits back and stays quiet, nothing will ever be done!!!!!!!!!!

i wont give up on this!
and neither should anyone else.
my mum didnt deserve to die the way she did!!!!!
No One Does!!!!!!!!!!

shadowgirl

Tom Young

Well done!

This can't be easy. I think it if you haven't already, get a good solicitor and start to discuss the proofs and evidence you'll need.

I had a long discussion with a doctor about this recently, inquest is the only way. Time consuming, emotionally charged but I think worth it.

I'll bare a thought in my day in memory of your mother.

shadowgirl

hi gabhain,

do you think that cleaners coming and going from an iosaltion room without aprons is covered by the hospitals duty of care?

my mum died two weeks ago of "blood poisioning" she had MRSA.

and i personally witnessed cleaners coming and going (WITHOUT APRONS) and only cleaning the floor of mums isolated room...and i complained about this to mums doctor.

isnt it also their duty of care to MAKE SURE everyone follow the instructions on the door of an isolated room?

i e. do not enter without primission of the nurse on duty.
you must wash your hands AND wear an apron at all times.

i witnessed ppl coming and going from mums room without any nurse/doctor saying a word.

also my mum was in hospital for four months...
" 3 and a half months were spent on the wards with other patients who had no idea mum had MRSA "

mums last two weeks were the only time she spent in isolation...


and that was only because i found her with her head hanging out of the bed with her face leaning against the rails of the bed and the curtains pulled around her " she was unattended"
i also complained about this, this time to patient services.

then out of the blue a isolation bed suddenly became available.

makes me wonder who was dragged out of the isolation room to cover up their mistakes!

shadowgirl

gabhain7 wrote: »

You have to first prove causation, that the negligence caused the MRSA, a pretty difficult feat to do.

You also need to show that the health authority broke the requisite standard of care, and there aren't policy reasons for excluding the dity of care. The standard of care is of a competent health care provider in the community, the courts don't expect perfection from healthcare professionals.

DawnMc

So delighted I came across this thread. I was actually googling 'sue hospital MRSA'. My family are trying to get information on where to go etc to sue the HSE. My father contracted MRSA after going into hospital for a routine operation, ended up in two separate comas, one for five months another for four. It has been ongoing for three years, endless operations and a double leg amputation. His life has been shattered and ours also.

All of this for going in to have a routine operation.

Any suggestions on the best way to go about proceedings? (Have been told by numerous medical staff that we more than have a case to sue)

keith_d99

Hi all,

My dad died last Tuesday after a 8 year battle with MRSA. The autopsy results are still pending - but I won't hold my breath regarding what's going to be the outcome of the autopsy.

Shadowgirl - when they said that your mother died from "Blood Poisoning" - I would nearly be 100% that it was Sepetecemia - my dad got this 4 or 5 times in his battle - caused by MRSA - basically MRSA getting into the blood.

Somebody asked legal action - we had engaged Ian Simons from Brian Lynch Associates in Galway - they specialise in MRSA cases and he is a member of MRSA and families. PM if you need details. Unfortunately for us, dad's case dies with him as far as I know. We will push for MRSA on death cert in some way.

Shadowgirl - what was the outcome of your case?

If anybody has any questions, please don't hesitatate to ask!
Keith.

shadowgirl

sorry to hear about your dad.

i've had to lay down the fight for some months, because i was emotionally wrecked.

i ended up in councling for 4 months.

because when we got the death cert back it said mam died of bronchophnmonia.


no mention of mrsa...it was actually the death cert that has caused me to go over the edge, because i was just so flaming frustrated with trying to get answers.

i recently wrote to the coroner and asked for a full and complete copy of my mothers atopsy.

i want these to see if there is any mention of mrsa...and if not i will be asking for an inquest.

so all i can do is wait and see.


keith, why do you say your dads case died with him?
if the case was ongoing surely as his child you could continue on?

hope all is well with you.

all the best,

shadow girl

keith_d99

Hi Shadowgirl,

The results of dad's autopsy states the cause of death, but no mention of MRSA. Eventhough it's written all over his records for 8 years - they decide that MRSA was not a factor in dad's death - absolutely scandalous!

I am waiting to talk to the solictor - and if we can request an inquest we will. Can that be done Shadowgirl do you know?

We already had engaged in "person injuries" case against the Health Board when dad was alive - so what I meant there - is that this case is gone if the person in question dies.

Now the case if different - or a new case if you like.
Oh we will continue the case - to get it recognised as a matter of pride for the suffering dad went through.

Here is another post I sent - with dad's case in more detail:

I lost my father a week ago today aged 61 from a MRSA related disease - if not MRSA itself - we are awaiting results of the autopsy.

Dad suffered from Rhematoid Arthritis - and went to a certain hospital for a hip replacement operation approx 8 years ago. He remembers waking up in the operating theatre - and said it was filthy - blood everywhere. The same hospital had rats in the operating theatre around the same time. There are a lot of MRSA cases relating to this particular hospital from the same time period.

We have had a long battle with the illness and the HSE in the last number of years. Dad never got rid of it. The doctors never told us for a while what it was - an "infection" they said for a long time. The never told us it would lead to several episodes of Septecemia, that it would result in him being disabled, bed-bound for his last years.
His worst bout came about 3 years ago - he complained of his arm being numb. After a MRI they realised that there was something touching on his spinal cord - they operated on him - and there was a matter growing inside him (like leather) that was wrapped around his spinal cord. He was never right physically after that. The matter was sent to a lab - and tested positive for MRSA.

I have read through the posts above and if I can just say from our experience:

- The HSE/Government have covered up MRSA for years. The facts are a lot worse than the stats. Rather than write the facts in people's medical file - they put a big yellow MRSA sticker on the file (and I have seen this happen). Micheal Noonan wrote a report back in 1984 stating that the goverment needed to act on this - this report was ignored.

- MRSA is not overhyped - it is everywhere - if you walk past a room in a hospital and you see a sign "Please report to nurse before entering" - you can be fairly sure that the patient inside has MRSA. Now count the signs you see.

- Everybody needs to educated on what it is - including hospital staff themselves - hygiene helps stop the spread.

- Dad has been in shared rooms with people with open wounds. We have had to ask the hospitals to put him in iscolation for the sake of the other patients.

- If you are healthy yes you can beat it - your immune system can beat it

- Overcrowding certainly doesn't help the cause

- It is a disease - sure it's usually accompanied by some other health problem. Dad never got rid of it. He had arthritis - that didn't kill him - MRSA did. MRSA made his life a misery - he would have suffered less with cancer.

- There are a lot more people dying from MRSA than people know - even families themselves do not know.

- Over-prescibing of anti-biotics have led to MRSA - the Irish mentality of "I have paid €50 to see this doctor the least I should get is an anti-biotic" - this doesn't help.

I wouldn't wish anybody to suffer the way dad did. My advice to anybody who is admitted into hospital - to shout if things don't look/feel right. If the place is filthy - demand that it is cleaned. If a doctor/nurse is not wearing a pair of new gloves when they come to your bed - demand that he/she does. One thing you will find with doctors is that they don't "appreciate" being questioned - question them - they are getting paid enough to answer your questions - they are not above it. A hospital has a legal "duty of care" to take care of you.

R.I.P. Dad - your pain is finally at an end!
Keith.