“Just after mum had her 73rd birthday she was due to go into hospital to have a knee replacement but none of us were unduly worried about it. Mum had always been active and the arthritis in her knee had held her back – she was looking forward to gardening again,” explains Sandra.
The knee replacement surgery went well but two days later, Louisa complained of feeling hot and having a tight chest and cough. She was diagnosed with a mild chest infection and was given a broad-spectrum antibiotic for 7 days to clear it up. “The staff got her up each day and she was having physiotherapy to keep her mobile and seemed to be doing OK. We were getting ready for her to come and stay with us for a couple of weeks until she could manage on her own again,” remembers Sandra.
A Surprise Call
Sandra had seen her mother the previous afternoon and was concerned that she didn’t quite seem herself. Louisa had seemed distant and a little confused and had confided that she had made a mess of the bed that morning and had been cleaned up by the nurses. “She was very embarrassed but I tried to reassure her that antibiotics do sometimes cause a bit of diarrhoea. I was bothered all the same.”
Half and hour before she was due to set off to visit again the next afternoon, Sandra got a phone call asking her to come in urgently as her mother had ‘taken a turn for the worse’. Sandra drove straight there to find that Louisa had been moved to a separate room with a handwritten card on the door saying ‘Barrier Nursing’. “Mum was in a terrible state and was constantly passing watery diarrhoea. She had terrible stomach pains and couldn’t even keep sips of water down. I heard C diff mentioned, but nobody explained.”
Catalogue of Errors
Sandra’s relationship with the hospital staff then began to deteriorate almost as fast as her mother’s health. “They started to act like she wasn’t worth treating. They made me wear white overalls to sit with her but bundled all her dirty, soiled clothes into a supermarket carrier bag for me to take home and wash. So much for containing the infection!”
Louisa was then given more antibiotics and Imodium but was not put on a drip. She had a catheter fitted and it was obvious to Sandra that she was getting badly dehydrated. “The urine in the bag from the catheter looked like coca cola – but why did it take me to point this out to a ward of supposedly trained nurses?”
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
Intensive Care
Sandra was repeatedly fobbed off and became frantic about her mother, who was losing weight and kept drifting off into a coma. “Although the staff had talked about C diff as ‘ a possibility’ there were no test results for days and we were just left in the dark. Six long weeks after she had been admitted for her knee replacement, my poor mum was transferred to intensive care with kidney failure, heart failure and sepsis. The bacterium had burst her large bowel and she was due to be operated on to remove it.”
Louisa lived a further four days in intensive care, barely knowing where she was or that Sandra and her sister Helen were there. “I have never known such an awful time in my life. My mum who had always looked after us and had been lovely, slim and fit all her life looked like she was 100 years old. She didn’t know us and she couldn’t speak. Sometimes she did cry silently, which was unbearable. On day 4, at 2pm, the doctor talked to us about stopping all treatment and letting her die peacefully with dignity. I screamed at him and had to be restrained from actually hitting him. What dignity? What peace? When mum died 2 hours later she had experienced weeks of agony, indignity and had died the most awful way that I can imagine.”
To their horror, the same doctor signed the death certificate for Louisa, citing ‘old age’ as the cause of death. C diff was not mentioned. Sandra and her family are now engaged in a formal complaint against the hospital and are seeking compensation. “If we get the money, we intend to donate it to a fund to research C diff and in mum’s name. The disease is a big problem now in hospitals but turning a blind eye is not the way to deal with it.”
She died in 2011 at just 42 I'm still so angry about it, she had cancer and caught c diff at the hospital and later died at home with family and some nurses looking after her. But while she was at the hospital it was horrible she had said to one of the doctors that she didn't want to die and her reply was .. well we're all going to die! What kind of reply is that? I now work in health care and would never speak to anyone like that.
I am sorry to hear everyones stories on here x
Toe
I have suffered the loss of my mum in australia which i believed was the result of the public health system.
Although we had prviate health, the ambulance will take you to the nearest hospital. Which for us happened to be modbury hospital, public health.
I watched my mum drown with peneumonis. They had her bed only a little way elevated and placed a cpap mask on her face. No aspiration or oxygen was given.
It was like they had written her off because of her age.
It is the most distressing thing to see your mum drowning, and struggling, her face going red and puffy, her fingers turning blue.
I am still finding it hard four months later. We all know that we die eventually. You can only hope it will be a peaceful death. I had not slept for 10 weeks, as each time mum went into hospital for iron and then a colonoscopy she came home with a bed sore.
My mum had diarrhea for months. She was seen by health professionals during this time.
I do not know why they did nothing, or did not tell us what was wrong.
I can only assume it was because she had already been written off by them 4 years prior, following a stroke which left her paralysed. I cared for her and rehabilitared her to a single stand transfer, on arriving home she was bedbound, ubable to even sit without support.
I was told by the public health system that she was unrehabilitatable. In fact she coukd not respond at the tine, as she was so highly meditated by them.
I witnessed a few elderly people being left after stroke. Apparently too bad to rehabilitate.
I fomed the impressionthat they were deemed too old. 82 years is not that old.
It has me worried for my future and old age.
I am left broken.
I am so angry as doctors refused to treat him, l even had 1 doctor from intensive care tell me that he would not resuscitate my husband. I asked him to wait whilst l got family members so they could listern to what he said. He disappeared. I could go on. They mistreated my husband, bullied him, and my husband got so upset that l had to stay with him 24/7. We kept telling them that threw the c-diff my husband could not eat. He had not eated for 28 days. All they kept saying that he's refusing all the time. I told my sister-in-law about this & she wrote to the hospital. Only then did they do something about it. But things went from bad to worse. I could not do anything but my sister-in-law wrote to QCQ and till this day nothing ever happened. My husband died from neglect in so many different ways. I know we're you are coming from. I would call my husband everyday at 10am. This 1 day he would not answer, so l rang the nurses station. I ask what is wrong with my husband, and was told he was drowsy, now on that day l was shattered & l thought l would go to the late evening visiting, but something told me to go in early. I got there and found my husband not reacting at all. I asked the nurse what was going on & why l wasn't informed, she didn't think it was anything serious. Then l got a doctor in, she asked me what l thought was wrong with my husband. I asked her to wake him up as he is "only drowsy". She couldn't, then all hell broke loose, blood transfusion, katheter, nose feed. My husband was always under temperature. I told them over & over again. It was hyperthermia, they didn't do anything. They wanted me to sign a form that he would not be resuscitated. I had no other choice but to bring him home, and try get help from my doc. But sadly l have no idea what happened he passed away on the 30th October 2014 at 11.55. My husband should be alive but due to the lack of care, and everything else my husband died.
I was in hospital in ICU for a month with c-diff. At one point early on, a nurse crept into my room and whispered that I had "every right to call in an infectious disease team." I had no idea what she was talking about, especially because I had a high fever and was delusional. Of course, nurses are also not allowed to suggest any kind of potential diagnosis. It took more than two weeks of agony and near death before doctors admitted to c-diff and started intensive treatment. I was lucky to have a very assertive and oftentimes verbally aggressive husband. Months later I spoke to a friend of mine who is a doctor specializing in c-diff. I was unaware of his specialty and he was very concerned when he heard what happened. He inquired as to the progression and treatment of my infection and admitted that I was damn lucky to be alive. He even went as far to say my husband probably saved my life.
Doctors are scared as hell of c-diff admits my friend the c-diff specialist. I wonder if they are pressured by hospitals and governing bodies to keep the statistics low concerning the number of confirmed c-diff cases.
Since my bout with c-diff I have lingering issues regarding daily nausea, irritable bowel, severe headaches, severe body pain and disabling fatigue. I am very curious to see how survivors of severe c-diff may have been affected long term by perhaps altering autoimmune efficiency. I'm sure studies will be forthcoming once the world has become better acquainted with this superbug and thereby demands better education for physicians and the public, more accurate reporting of the number of actual cases and related deaths, as well as increased measures of early detection and prevention. I cannot tell you how many times I witnessed hospital workers breaking quarantine in my room. And most of these were the cafeteria workers delivering food to all the patients. This in itself is worthy of publicity!
I wrote and phoned my local department of health and human services here in the States. They refused to acknowledge any interest in this quickly spreading, potentially fatal disease. I simply do not understand this lack of regard.
I am terribly saddened and outraged by Sandra's story. I pray that this story will somehow garner increased public demand of the rights of patients to receive correct healthcare. The ignorance and utter lack of attention in Sandra's mum's case is, as I stated above, undeniable medical negligence. In the US there would be an immediate lawsuit. I'm not a big proponent of suing people just to get something out of an unfortunate situation. But this time I would have to reluctance to do so.
Please accept my deepest sympathies for your mother and you and your family for enduring such corrupt, inept, and immoral treatment of your mother. How dare them cover it up and treat her with such complete disregard for her life. Just like the medical profession to throw a poison, disgard the risks, fail to tell of the risks, and cover up their misdeeds, and then go on self-righteously for more of the same. Your mom sounds lovely. I speak present tense, because her beautiful spirit lives on. I am so very sorry for your loss. I appreciate you turning her memory into awareness. I was prescribed clindamycin for a huge infection of jaw (no biopsy), they did not tell me of the risks at all. It accelerated the motor neuron damage and now has extended to complete peripheral neuropathy of all limbs. Colitis or IBS as well, when previously no problems at all. I also suspect kidney damage with bleeding and constant pain nearly a year. I don't want to go near doctors or hospitals. Wake up medical profession. Humble yourself to ask truly if you consider healing a divine responsibility. Take that responsibility. Egotistical, crude, excuse-ridden, and completely unethical standards. Hypocrates said, "First do no harm". Technology has advanced with testing plants at rapid rate. Your drugs are outmoded and proven harmful. Generally speaking, this is the case. Where is the healing from the medical profession? How dare the majority of you call yourself doctors and nurses. You are a dying breed. It will be good to see your profession completely exposed. You are going down fast. Globalization and science is making sure of it. And, the U.S. will not stand for pharmaceutical and government taking away our rights to eat and treat ourselves with food and herbs. The medical profession is absolutely pathetic. There are at least a dozen plants proven to outperform diabetes drugs, eight naturals that outperform steroids, Black Seed Oil/Thymoquinone which reverses M.S. by 50% and is 100% effective against Heroin withdrawal....so much more. The drug companies know it. Do you? If you are a medical professional, why are you not aware or why are you not doing the most you can for your patients without the harm? Because, you are not fit to be a healer. This woman's story is classic. It is not a rare occurance. The horror stories abound. The coverups continue. The lack of accountability and ego goes on. Do unto others as you'd have done to you. Accept for yourself the standard you spit on others.
Ask Types of Bacteria a question
Ask our editorial team a question and we will reply with our advice. Tell us as much about your situation as you can: the more detail you give, the more useful our answer can be.
You do not need to use your real name. Please do not include your full address, phone number, email address, or the names of other people. We may edit or remove identifying details for privacy and legal reasons.
Comments are moderated before publication.