Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Seriously Bad Stuff

Last week I learned some information that was pretty scary to me about local hospitals and the new strain of infection many are spreading that is resistant to antibiotics. The hospitals send people to nursing homes after surgery, and a lot of people are arriving at the nursing home with this infection that they picked up at the hospital. The patient dies from the infection at the nursing home, which then blamed for unclean conditions. But only the patients coming from the hospital are dying.

As a result, most of the nursing homes in the region refuse to accept patients who are recovering after having been at the hospital. Why? Because they do not want to get a bad reputation when in fact it is the hospitals doing the dirty work. It is the hospital spreading this incurable infection.

How serious is this problem? Check out these stats from a Fort Worth article: "An estimated 2 million Americans annually get one of a variety of drug-resistant infections, leading to about 90,000 deaths, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate. Of those afflicted, 87 percent catch the infection at a healthcare facility, the CDC says."

These are only estimates. It could be worse. My daughter shared that five students at her small Midwestern college have died from this "superbug." She had us pray for a girl whose leg was amputated to keep the infection from spreading to the rest of her body.

This is seriously scary stuff, if you ask me. Here's a darn good reason to eat healthy and stay fit. If you go to the hospital for a procedure, it just might kill you.

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