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The Silent And Painful Killer: "Childbed Fever"
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The Silent And Painful Killer: "Childbed Fever" |
01/13/09
01/13/09
period
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The gravely ill, perhaps a separate building as well
basically restructuring everything which isn't going to happen any time soon
01/13/09
"The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug"
[www.amazon.com]
It was all pretty heart-wrenching. One anecdote was about a young doctor who had a series of women die from childbed fever. He shaved all the hair off his body and burned all his clothes, and waited six month before attending another birth... and that woman died too.
The man who first made the connection that the doctors themselves were spreading the disease was an obstetrician, and he said that he was haunted by the idea that he was an unwitting murderer to many of his patients. He died in a mental asylum.
The Victorian era was grim, dudes.
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i am also 9 weeks away from my due date.
i might just go with ignorance is bliss at this point unless prior knowledge could help me avoid one of these ailments?
01/14/09
But yay for 9 weeks! :)
01/13/09
Am I alone on this one? I can't say I've ever seen this in a Miss Manners column...
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Found this out from Senior Counsel for very large, hospital chain. GROSS.
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01/14/09
Sorry to harp on about it. I have some doctors in my family too, but I still find this disgraceful.
01/13/09
Think about it when you enter a hospital, perhaps you enter the hospital shop and buy grapes or a magazine for your ill relative, do you then wash your hands before visiting the patient?
Most people don't, nor do they wash their hands having come in from outside, travelling on the tube etc and then visiting the patient...
The moral is wash your hands before visiting your sick relative, you'll be lowering their chances of catching MRSA significantly.
This message has been bought to you on behalf of my mother, an infection control doctor. Thank you.
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so, I think the sinks at all admittance sites is the best idea, by far
MRSA is seriously scary shit - and my damn (but lovely) husband comes home with all sorts of frightening studies for me to read - that is what I get being married to a scientists whose primary course of study was pathology
01/14/09
It's all well and good to blame the visitors etc, and don't get me wrong, I know they bring a lot into the hospitals and definitely need to be more diligent in washing their hands, but the doctors are spreading stuff between all the patients and they are the ones who should know better. It's part of their job to be hygenic and they are getting a big FAIL on that.
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[en.wikipedia.org]
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Another thing . . . I seem to remember reading a history book that said Orthodox Jews in the middle ages were hated because they TOOK BATHS and people thought there was something wrong with them because nobody took baths back then because everybody knew you got pneumonia when you got wet.
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The doctors on the other hand, literally went from bed to bed to bed all next to each other in a maternity ward and stuck his hand up the women's vadges in assembly line fashion with no handwashing and no time in between. So gross!
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See my comment above.@applejuice:
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My mom came down with blood poisoning (also known as sepsis or septacemia) and almost died. She was really sick for a long time.
I bet it is still happening too. With her the Dr and Hospital denied all responsibility. I'm sure that is still happening. How do you prove this? Also, cleanliness in hospitals is getting worse all the time.
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BUT - study after study has shown that doctors are very very consistant in failing to wash their hands (as in like 3 out of 4 times) between patients. Sorry, but that is pure negligence in my mind. They are aware of the implications and it is their JOB to be hygenic.
I agree that visitors and patients need to be aware and careful to wash, but I'm much harsher on the freakin' healthcare workers.
(Nurses are better but still only 40% to 50% of them have been found to be good about this.)
There are literally hundreds of studies all around the world that all find the same thing, here are just a couple I googled quickly:
[www.montrealgazette.com]
[women.webmd.com]
01/13/09
Her life was far more fascinating than her death, though. She was ahead of her time.
01/13/09
Seriously, I have struggled with whether to tell some fellow attorneys that their secretaries don't wash their hands in the bathroom...and I'm shocked that they aren't disgusted with themselves after using a public restroom (with other people who DO NOT wash their hands) and walking out without doing anything.
What. Is. The. Rush?
01/13/09
Some guy hit on me at the post office earlier today and he offered me his hand to shake. And I took it. Now I am remembering that I didn't wash my hands afterward and I feel like I am going to hurl.
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@Penny_Esq: Exactly! Sometimes I will rush out of the stall, wash my hands quickly, and run out of the bathroom to see who just left without washing. I need to know so I can avoid them at all costs...also, I'm freaked out that they aren't ashamed.
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Some idiot in my dorm didn't wash his hands last year. And so everyone got sick.
01/13/09
So he comes out of his office and says "Hello, I'm Dr. Socially Awkward and I know you are going to want to shake my hand so I have to tell you that I don't 'do that' so I'm going to connect with you as a human being" how?
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@happysquid: yay for training! my BF washes his hands as much as I do, and I LOVE it. He totally loves the girlie hand soap smell too.
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as far as your new neighbor coughing and shaking...take some Oscillococcinum if you start feeling crappy! works every time to stop a cold in its tracks.
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I've been at this for 20 years. Mr. G is at Level 1.5.
01/13/09
I used to carry my own little bottle of hand soap with me. Now I carry Purell. I just try not to touch anything, including my face or doorknobs, until I get back to my desk and can sanitize. Sometimes I do catch people staring at me strangely and I want to say "You really don't want to see the hives, rash and peeling patches of skin. You. Really. Don't".
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Do you think my doctor would be insulted if I insisted everyone who touches me borrows my bottle of Purell first?
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There is a growing push to promote patients asking this, as well as hospital literature that reminds docs not to flip attitude and to be at 100% compliance. 'Cause no, they're not 100% perfect. Just a lot better than they used to be.
White coats (if not laundered fairly constantly) and doc's ties can also harbor germs, because they are not laundered as much as scrubs are. A doctor without a tie is a better doctor.
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I teach at an elementary school, so my colleagues are all big on washing constantly. Purell is our best friend. I have a big can of Oust in my room, and I'm NOT afraid to stop in the middle of a kindergarten music lesson and remind a kid that nose-picking is just gross, the Kleenex box is over there, and to please wash after putting that Kleenex in the garbage can!
Also, a few years ago my brother and his wife came for Christmas with three foster children they were caring for (siblings, all under age 4). We'd hugged and patted heads and everything else when my SIL chirps, "Oh, Maria's got pinkeye!"
Mom and I were horrified, and I was diving for the Purell.
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A travesty!
01/13/09
God Damn It!!!!
at least people know the name of Tesla
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@DanA MacDonald: Wasn't he stabbed with a dirty knife or something?
01/13/09
[www.b-bam.com]
01/14/09
And as i cite Vonnegut as one of mine, I feel obligated to co-opt his heroes for myself!
Also, can I say, I absolutely LOVE the historical pieces that the site's been doing recently. I am a huge nerd, I know, but they've all been incredibly fascinating.