Kicked in the stomach.

For some reason the text is sometimes leaving out the capital letters....I don't know why.

I think I am in shock. All these years I have had the niggling feeling that they covered something up. I was told it was pneumonia, but there was a word on two death certificates that I will never forget.

That word was burned into my soul. Pseudomonas.

A horrid word that no one would explain to me. What was it? It was always fudged over when I asked and I was too weak to insist or to make a fuss. Never, ever make a fuss. 'It was no one's fault. Just one of those things. Put it behind you'. After all these years this word flew off the page as I read this latest news. I always thought that the hospital was at fault in some way. After all this time it has hit me so hard. It needn't have happened. It wasn't my fault. It shouldn't have happened. But it did and I must again 'put it behind me'.

Pseudomonas.

I hate that word.

Three babies dead after infection at Belfast hospital

The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been blamed for the deaths of three babies at Belfast's Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital, in the neonatal intensive care unit.

What kind of illness does it cause?

The severity and type of the illness it causes depends on its route into the body.

If it enters lung tissue it can cause a form of pneumonia.

If the bacterium infects the gastro-intestinal system of a vulnerable patient, then a condition called "necrotising enterocolitis" can follow, which again causes severe tissue damage.

This is the form most associated with premature babies.

How is it spread?

The usual route is through contaminated hands or medical equipment such as catheters and feeding tubes.

Infection control measures such as regular handwashing and decontamination of equipment are the most effective tactics to prevent its spread.

How can it be treated?

Once established in a weakened patient, a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is potentially a severe problem which requires immediate treatment.

While mortality from the infection varies depending on where the infection is, how soon it is treated and the underlying weakness of the patient, some studies suggest a third of infected patients may die.

posted by Sue Banks @ 8:45 AM