Friday, February 6, 2009

Unclean Unclean!


Well you know how I love a catchy title, especially when talking about the mumborg. What am I yammering on about this time? The lovely topic of mumborg and the not so lovely fact that she has MRSA again.

The not so curious case of MRSA and The Mumborg 2009
The mumborg arrived in hospital on Monday with a suspected dislocated bionic hip and possible shifting of one of the pins holding bionic leg together. She is assessed and kept in the observation area of the hospital, swabs are taken and she is clear of MRSA at this point.

After being diagnosed with a broken 'cup' part of the bionic hip, also some problems in the locking mechanism and lining, the mumborg is sent up to the orthopaedic wards. At this point she is settled in and more swabs and bloods are taken. It is after the results come back from these tests, that it shows she is now positive for MRSA and is promptly moved to her own room.

This reminds me of a biblical quote by this bloke:
'People who come down with a skin disease must wear torn clothes and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their upper lips and call out, 'Unclean, unclean!'
Leviticus 13:45
Okay that one is a bit extreme, let the woman comb her hair and keep her nightgown in one piece.Maybe the original blogger Samuel Pepys can sum it up better, using the plague of 1665 as inspiration.
This day I did in Drury Lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon their doors and "Lord have mercy upon us" writ there, which was a sad sight to me." Plague was so common that this would have been a common sight in London with the person seeing it simply feeling sorry for the family inside the locked house.
 Does the NHS need their own personal Great Fire of London (1666), to sort this bloody MRSA mess out?

Excuse the drama llama in me and I do not wish to appear flippant, I just need to vent. I understand the reasons of putting the mumborg in her own room, heck if I was in hospital, I would love my own room! That's better than mad old Betty trying to get in bed with you or her trying to use your chair as a commode (true stories). Also I would not want it passed onto anyone else, especially the ones even more vulnerable than my mumborg. Anyhoo back on track with the tale of the unclean.

Once she is safely away from all the other patients and in her own room, the nurses have to take special care when they are in the room.Wearing disposable plastic bibs over uniform, disposable gloves and washing hands thoroughly after removing said gloves.

Today she went into surgery to have the broken hip cup replaced, locking mechanism fixed and some new lining put in. It was a seven hour operation and fingers crossed everything went well. The problem is that now she has had surgery, the risk of infection is even higher than usual and there is no way of knowing if the wound will get infected or not. They will want to get her out of hospital pretty sharpish, but at what cost?

I am not shocked by the fact that the mumborg had got MRSA again whilst in hospital, even though it is shockingly disgusting that it has happened. I am disappointed though and it leaves you wondering what they are actually doing about it, in the big picture sense. All of the hoo-ha about it in the news, over and over again, yet there it is, still hanging around ready to pounce on the vulnerable. I use the alcohol gel repeatedly on entering and exiting the ward. Do you? Are you ever asked to? Should you be asked?. All I know is that they are very very strict on the times you can visit your friends/family, keeping the doors locked till its exactly visiting time and kicking you out promptly when visiting time runs out. I have never been asked to clean my hands, but it certainly wouldn't bother me if I was. Would it really irk you if you were asked to do it? I know I am guilty of tutting very loudly when I spot somebody not using the gel. Do people really not know how important it is?
Did you hear they've banned Scrabble from hospital wards? 
They're scared patients will get MRSA.

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