Whenever anyone has to stay in the hospital for a long time, the potential of hospital-acquired infections will be on the medical staff's radar.
These infections, also called nosocomial infections, are basically what their name suggests — any infection specifically acquired at a hospital. Sometimes, hospital-acquired infections are caused by bacteria that primarily spread in healthcare settings, while other bugs could be picked up anywhere. Some of the more dramatic infections that you have probably already heard of would be MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas), or sepsis. These are both common occurrences in the hospital. The longer your stay at a hospital, the more likely you are to catch one of these nasty bugs.
It is important you for you to realize, as a patient, that a hospital is not a place where you want to stay for longer than your doctor sees fit. Many patients do not mind staying in the hospital because they may worry about going home to care for themselves after a complication surgical procedure, but after reading this article, hopefully you will be more aware of the dangers and see that the risks are not worth the reward. In turn, you'll be itching to go home as soon as possible.
What exactly are septicemia and sepsis?
Normally, our blood is housed in a mostly closed environment within our arteries and veins. I say "mostly" closed here, simply because the body does have some areas where the walls are thinner to allow blood to pass through the vessel walls and give tissues the vital nutrients they need to survive. In your biology classes, you may remember these junctions are referred to as capillaries.
This physiological adaption is a very important reason we are alive, but these sites are also a gateway for a number of bacteria that can enter the blood stream. Bacteria are able to enter the blood in a number of different ways. Any common injury that you may sustain, like scraping your knee after a fall or cutting yourself accidentally with a knife, could be a vector for bacteria to enter your bloodstream.
In all likelihood, however, you were able to avoid a trip to the hospital in those circumstances. This is because upon damage along the blood musculature, the blood vessels and immune system launch their own defense against any foreign particles like bacteria or viruses that may enter your blood and prevent the infection from traveling further throughout your body.
When the entry point is opened for a prolonged period of time for whatever reason, the risk of an opportunistic infection that enters the bloodstream and migrates to different parts of your body rises significantly.
Some of the most common reasons behind this increased risk of infection for patients occupying hospital beds would be intravenous lines (IVs) or Foley catheters. Even if hospitals have strict measures in place to limit the amount of time a patient is able to have an open IV access line or how long they are able to leave a catheter in place before needing to remove it, our bodies are unable to adequately defend against all possible infections in some cases — and then, a patient will develop sepsis.
If the causative bacteria are able to penetrate through the first line of defense, the body will still be able to launch an attack against the microbes, but the responses will be much more dramatic. The sympathetic nervous system will be activated, the one responsible for “fight” or “flight” responses, and your body will go into a biological war against these bacteria.
As the sepsis progresses, the level of consciousness could soon be affected and the number of white blood cells will either be very high or very low. This stage, which is called septic shock, demands very significant medical intervention, because without continuously monitoring vital signs like blood pressure, heart rate, and saturation levels and without antibiotics, the patient will likely die.
Now that I may have fully terrified you about the next time you go to the hospital, I’ll bring you some better news in this next section. True, there is always a chance that you could develop sepsis, but doctors are trained to monitor for early signs of sepsis and intervene as the earliest signs to prevent life-threatening complications from developing. We may not always be successful, but most patients are able to enter and leave the hospital without incident.
Is E. Coli something to worry about?
You have almost certainly already heard of E. Coli before, in the news or online. The most likely news story about E. Coli (full name Escherichia coli) would involve some type of contaminated food that an unfortunate customer ingested — but you may not actually be aware of where else E. coli could be found.
E. Coli is a common bacterium that is normally found within the human intestines, as well as those of other warm-blooded organisms. There are a few different strains of E. coli but most of them are completely harmless. A few of strains of E. Coli are able to cause more severe food poisoning incidents.
E. coli is also one of the most abundant organisms within our intestines; you may not have known, for instance, that up to 70 percent of the bacteria naturally found within our intestines are E. Coli. These microorganisms are also likely to be found on our skin. The fact that E. Coli is so very common is also why E. Coli can be considered to be one of the most likely causative organisms that could lead to sepsis.
An IV line or catheter could become infected with this bacterium for a number of different reasons.
- Such an infection could be from poor hygiene on the part of the medical staff. It is recommended that doctors, nurses and physiotherapists change gloves every time they meet with a new patient, but that may not always be possible. Even when it is, you will always find those who do not follow protocol.
- Patients could also potentially infect themselves by touching the tubes or even trying to remove them, including while they are sleeping.
- Bed sheets or medical instruments are also a potential source of these infections, whether they are touched by someone else, you, or simply not cleaned frequently enough.
Doctors and other medical professionals try to prevent these opportunistic hospital infections from occurring by limiting the amount of time a patient requires the types of medical interventions that increase the risk of hospital-acquired infections. Time limits on IV lines and catheters are recommended and bed sheets and bandages should be changed routinely to make sure everything stays as sterile as possible.
Even if ideal protocols are followed, however, there is no guarantee that a person could still not end up with septicemia or sepsis during a hospital stay.
If it is suspected that you may have developed sepsis, the most important thing to do is to begin medical treatment as quickly as possible. Antibiotics must be given in an IV line to be as strong and fast-acting as possible. Patients should also be given fluids and their blood should be tested to try to identify the organism causing the infection. This will allow doctors to use specific antibiotics designed to be most effective against that organism.
Most patients will be able to make a full recovery from a mild case of sepsis, but if the sepsis is a very severe, a patient could suffer from septic shock. This is when they may lose consciousness and fall into a coma. If this true medical emergency were to occur, the mortality rate is close to 40 percent.
Your thoughts on this