MRSA (Mersa) Questions

Patient advocate group launched in Canada

Link: globeandmail.com : Hospital scourge.

   Dr. Besson had no problems recovering from his surgery, but his MRSA infection proved to be another challenge altogether: It so debilitated his health that he remained in bed for nearly four months under heavy antibiotic treatment. At the end of his stay, he picked up another formidable invader, Clostridium difficile, a diarrhea maker that killed nearly 2,000 elderly patients from 2003 to 2004 in Quebec. The grim hospital adventure turned Dr. Besson into a full-fledged patient advocate. In 2005, together with family and friends, he founded the Montreal-based Association to Defend Victims of Nosocomial Infections to help reduce infections acquired in hospital by 50 per cent. The association's website now receives 4,000 visits a month. Print Edition - Section Front Section F Front  Enlarge Image More National Stories     * THIS WAS JOHNATHON     * A chance to bring an end to historic civil war     * Insult to injury: Rugby player learns too late about insurance     * Just how French is la Francophonie?     * More than apology is needed, Arar says     * Volpe campaign hit with $20,000 fine     * Go to the National section The Globe and Mail Dr. Besson, who sounds a vital 85 years of age on the phone, spends much of his free time educating the public and health-care professionals about the scourge that sickens 90,000 patients and kills 4,500 a year in Quebec alone. In fact, hospital infections bury more Quebeckers every year than car accidents and breast cancer combined, he declares with alarm. "The problem of hospital-acquired infections is a really important one, not only in Quebec and Canada but around the world," Dr. Besson says.

MRSA victims and their families are fighting back

Link: Waterford News & Star:

      VICTIMS of the hospital superbug MRSA and their families are being asked to attend a public meeting in the Tower Hotel at 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday April 25. The meeting is being called by MRSA and Families Support Group who intend to establish branches of the organisation nationwide. Local member Teresa Graham, whose husband Dermot acquired MRSA while undergoing treatment for cancer at Waterford Regional Hospital and died in late 2004, said that at long last MRSA was on the national health agenda. Following meetings with the Minister for Health, Mary Harney all doctors have now been directed to inform patients if they have MRSA and to have MRSA recorded on a death certificate. However, despite appeals to the Minister, MRSA sufferers or their families will not be given the same access to counselling that is currently available to Hepatitis C sufferers. At present there are no figures available for the number of MRSA sufferers or the number of people who have died as a result of MRSA in this country. However, Teresa Graham believes that in 2004 at least 320 people died of MRSA-related illnesses and 120 people died directly as a result of MRSA.

Ash determined to persue MRSA campaign

Link: News - Leeds Today

     LESLIE Ash is still picking up the pieces of her life after almost being killed by a hospital superbug. Two years after being struck down by a deadly variant of the MRSA infection, the actress struggles to walk properly and is still in daily pain. But Leslie, wife of Leeds United soccer legend Lee Chapman, is determined to use her remaining strength to make sure other patients do not suffer the same fate. Leslie, 46, told the YEP: "No-one else should have to go through what I went through. You go into hospital to get better, not come out and get worse." The star of Men Behaving Badly and Merseybeat contracted MSSA, similar to MRSA, when she was admitted to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London with a broken rib and a collapsed lung. She believes the infection set in when doctors inserted an epidural needle to relieve the pain. The infection caused a large abscess to form which put pressure on her spine. The damage means she has lost much of her sense of balance leaving her unable to walk properly. The mother-of-two is now suing the NHS Trust which treated her and is also leading a campaign to clean up hospitals.

Geordie Doctors Dispute Patient's Advice

Link: RedOrbit

          Hospital doctors in the region are at loggerheads with a patient support group over a booklet it has published on MRSA. Patient group MRSA Support has produced a leaflet called MRSA ( A Patient's Defence urging patients to speak up if they believe hospital staff aren't doing enough to halt the spread of the superbug. But medics at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust ( which runs the city's RVI, Freeman and General hospitals ( have described some of the information given as "excessive and unnecessary" and fear it could lead to confrontations between patients and hospital workers. Dr Steve Pedler, director of infection prevention and control at the trust, has written to the Department of Health to make the Government aware of the document, and wants the MRSA Support group to change its contents. "The leaflet has clearly been written by a person with strong feelings on this topic," said Dr Pedler yesterday. "Some of the advice within it is sensible and reasonable. Some we would regard as excessive and unnecessary, but not actually harmful, while some is inaccurate or could lead to confrontation with trust staff." But yesterday, Tony Field, a founder of MRSA Support and author of the booklet, stood by what he had written.

icCheshireOnline - Visitors urged to join MRSA fight

Link: icCheshireOnline - Visitors urged to join MRSA fight.

    HEALTH watchdogs are encouraging Leighton Hospital visitors to join them in the fight against MRSA. The Patient and Public Involvement Forum (PPI) has launched a Clean Your Hands campaign, stressing the need for cleanliness across the hospital site. It has carried out surveys of hospital departments to monitor moves to stamp out the superbug. New traffic light posters have been placed round Leighton and its sister hospital, the Victoria Infirmary at Northwich. The move comes as figures showed 18 cases of MRSA within the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust between March and September 2005 - two less than the same period in 2004.

Support Group Fights Killer Bug

Link: Enfield Independent

    A woman whose grandmother died after contracting a lethal infection which swept through wards at North Middlesex Hospital is setting up a support group for victims' families. Caterina Cotrulia, 93, died in September, 2005, after contracting clostridium difficile (C. diff) a bug which attacks the body causing severe diarrhoea and dehydration during her stay in Michael Bates Ward, in Sterling Way, Edmonton. Her death sparked accusations of gross negligence after one other patient died and around 30 fell ill as the infection swept wards. Internal investigations were also launched. Graziella Kontkowski, granddaughter of Ms Cotrulia, is now calling on families affected by C. diff, along with the superbug MRSA, to come forward.

Mum helps BBC probe MRSA issue

Link: icCheshireOnline

   A MID Cheshire mum who lost her son to MRSA will appear in a BBC documentary exposing poor hygiene in hospitals tomorrow night.

Mavis Law, of Beckenham Grove, Winsford, was one of a 100-strong army of superbug victims to go under-cover to highlight 'shameful' hygiene standards in hospitals across the UK.

The team posed as clean-ers to gain access to 10 of the worst-hit hospitals, wearing hired uniforms and brandishing mops and dusters.

Despite turning up unannounced, they were ignored by security staff as they witnessed shocking conditions. The team then took the problem into their own hands and started cleaning.

Mavis said: 'Some of the things I saw were shocking and the hygiene was shameful. It was lax, dirty and we were amazed that we weren't challenged by security staff. It was disgusting to see the conditions patients have to put up with.

MRSA victim's pledge to help hospital clean-ups

Link: MRSA victim

   A FORMER hospital cleaning supervisor whose leg was amputated because of MRSA today vowed to clean-up dirty wards --by becoming a hospital inspector.

Norman Turner, 42, from Darwen, said that he now wants to dedicate his life to improving hospital hygiene standards to combat the spread of the hospital acquired super-bug.

The father-of-two was admitted to Blackburn Royal Infirmary -- the hospital where he once worked -- for a routine operation to replace an artery with an artificial one on August 20.

The wound site in his groin became infected with MRSA and as Mr Turner fell into a coma, doctors were forced to save his life by amputating his left leg at the hip.

He has already approached various MRSA support groups and Patient and Public Involvement Forum (PPI) bosses have said they would welcome him as a member of their hospital forum which carries out spot-checks on hygiene standards within the East Lancashire Hospital's NHS Trust.

Mr Turner said: "All I want to do now is commit my time to volunteer work to improve hygiene standards in hospitals so nobody else has to go through what I have.

Irish patients gain ground in MRSA action

Link: Waterford news

Among the items on the group’s agenda was the need to end the lack of clarity over the prevalence of MRSA and its contributing role in the deaths of patients. “MRSA is not mentioned on the death certificate,” said Noel.

Noel Walsh: ‘She seemed genuinely gobsmacked’

“When this was mentioned to the Minister, she seemed genuinely gobsmacked,” continued Noel. “For example, if a person with cancer gets MRSA and dies, there is no reference to MRSA on that person’s death certificate.

Because of this, MRSA remains some sort of taboo subject - it’s being kept hidden.”

During the meeting, Minister Harney said that the referencing of MRSA as a contributing factor in death on a death certificate would be addressed. A spokesperson for the T�naiste confirmed the Minister’s stance to the Munster Express yesterday (Tuesday), adding that MRSA alone cannot kill a patient.

Noel, who is currently on a waiting list at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital for a transplant, needs no reminder of the dangers he encounters during any single visit he makes to hospital, be it WRH or St. Vincent’s.

“One person in a hospital with MRSA is one too many for a person with CF if you’re waiting for a transplant,” said Noel. “If I get MRSA, I will be automatically off the list - Newcastle wouldn’t take me with a 40 foot pole.”

Hospital Infection Action Primer

Link: RIDBooklet_120605.pdf (application/pdf Object).

Click the link above for the PDF of an inspirational booklet about combating hospital infection