WA Student Dies From MRSA
Chris Feden, a 20-year-old student from Tenino, Washington, has died from complications of pneumonia caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus commonly referred to as MRSA.
Feden, a student at Western Washington University in Bellingham, experienced two weeks of lingering cough after which he suddenly developed fever, vomiting, and began coughing up blood on February 14. He was admitted to the intensive care unit at St. Joseph Hospital but antibiotics were unable to save him. MRSA, unlike many other bacteria, produces toxic substances that causes shock in patients, as it did in Feden’s case.
Dr. Maxine Hayes, health officer for Washington’s Department of Health, said that many people carry MRSA on their skin, in their noses, without experiencing any symptoms. However, once a person develops influenza, their immune system becomes weakened and the bacterial presence can spread into a life-threatening infection.
Dr. Hayes urges people to remember that influenza is not “just a bad cold” and should be taken seriously. In fact, it kills about 36,000 Americans each year.
Flu vaccines, which remain available, are likely to reduce the risk of secondary infection, including MRSA. Of the 13,000 students attending Western, only about 750 have been vaccinated.
- With the news about MRSA surfacing on an almost weekly basis, do you think we should be more concerned about MRSA? What precautions should individuals and healthcare authorities take to protect us?
- Do you think that the authorities should do a better job explaining to the public the differences between Staphylococcus aureus and its more deadly type methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)?
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I’m not that concerned with MRSA. you hear stories about it here and there but it’s not like thousands of people are catching it
we should all be more aware of MRSA b/c once it mutates into a form which is not treated by today’s antibiotics, it will be disastrous
Im scared of mrsa
MRSA skin infections were very rare 5-10 years ago… they were limited strictly to hospitals. Now people are getting these infections from the community, ranging from bug bites to scraping yourself at the gym. Right now, it’s rare to see MRSA caused pneumonia… just imagine how prevalent MRSA pneumonia will be 5-10 years.
I heard of a lady who contracted MRSA when she shaved her legs and went to visit someone at the hospital the same morning… not sure how true or how probable this is because it was “friend told a friend” type of thing. ANybody know how likely this would be??
not likely
Don said “but it’s not like thousands of people are catching it”
but if Don read the article, 36,000 die from it each year.
Don, what do you mean it’s not like thousands of people are catching it? How about 95,000 people in 2005, of which 19,000 died. Thankfully there are many people who do make it through. One such person is my brother, who was hospitalized three months ago. After a couple of weeks on a ventilator, two chest tubes, a tracheotomy , and his gallbladder removed, he finally got out of the I.C.U. after two months. All of this from a guy that is in better shape than he was in high school while being scouted by Big Ten schools.
Just a few months ago it came out that there are more U.S. deaths from MRSA than AIDS. What color is the staph aureus ribbon? You should be scared, the number of people infected just keeps growing.
SedentaryVirtuoso & PK - if your numbers are correct, and I assume they are, this only shows that some/many people, including me, still don’t know much about the bug. You know much more about it because someone close to you was affected by it, I on the other hand, have only heard about it from the news.
I’m glad I stopped by here and learned something new
-Don
Don, I’m sorry for wording my comment so strongly like I did. I’m still shaken by my brothers recent bout with MRSA. He has always been someone who could come through anything like a champion, and seeing him in that condition really shook me. Anyway, sorry again.
I am very worried about this since I have it and it is not easy to deal with or get rid of.
I believe that we need to be much more AWARE of this and it is very scary to think you have a bug bite and it turns into this hole that has eaten away the flesh.
If you have a bug bite and it has a fire touch to it get to a doctor immediately. Not your normal itch since this is what mine had and I had NEVER heard of MRSA and I do not know where I got it from
The meds they put me on I was allergic to those too and so that alone along with the pain and agony that goes along with this is TERRIBLE and it almost killed me. The only thing they could do for me is topical with creams and salve and I am not cured by a long shot. My knee and leg were 3 sizes of normal and I could barely walk and when I could it was terrible with pain for months and months.
Your skin turns black and others I know who have this have it in their bone since it just eats away at anything in it’s path. Make sure you cover this area since this is how it is getting out and about with sores left wide open and this gunk all over the place. You never know what other people do just make sure you wash your hands with alcohol based soap. It’s the only thing that will protect you and that’s the truth!!! I also did that and still ended up with it and not sure how???
MRSA is defently something that the public needs to know about and they need to know that not everything is being done to help reduce the chance of spreading it. I have had MRSA twice, The first time I lay almost dead from it when my body started to fight back. It is hitting the teenagers more then any other age group and it has been called the silent locker room killer. It started out in the western part of the United States when I got it the first time. Then went it hit Indiana, sure enough I was one of its first victims to get hit with it.
However something is completely different this time. A lady was speaking to my husband and heard he told her about the fact that I had MRSA. After talking to him and exchanging email addresses, they went thier different ways. That was until the Sunday after they spoke. She went to church and asked for prayer for me. She knew of a lady that had MRSA in florida and used this machine that killed the MRSA. It had been known to kill Staph but this was the first case of MRSA it was tried on.
As soon as the lady got home from church she went to the internet in search of locating our phone number. When she called she said, I have prayed about it and I believe that if we can just get this machine to your wife she will be healed. The machine was not that costly compared to the hospital stays, but having MRSA twice was the end of our life savings. We had no more money. This lady didn’t call with a sales pitch, she called to get our address. She had order ready to go in as soon as my husband gave her a address. It was hard to believe that some lady that didn’t know me was willing to purchase this machine for me. When I heard this I wanted to cry, because there was hope, and I hadn’t much hope because twice was more then I could fight. I was just so weak. The question was, is it really true or just a horrible joke. It took three business days and the knock on the door came. My husband got answered it. He came to my room. Yes this time, I was home with a nurse taking care of me. I just wanted to be home if I wasn’t going to pull through. It took him fifteen minutes and he plugged it in. My bedroom door was closed and it was sat next to my open wound. It was amazing. I couldn’t tell you that when it started up, I jumped up and was healed. No but I could tell you, The smell was gone in the room. It didn’t smell so bad that some of my own family couldn’t come in here because they vomited every time they opened the door. If you have ever been around MRSA you would know the smell. It is a smell that nobody could ever forget.
Within three days, my wound that was twelve inches long and thirteen inches long and 6 deep, showed signs of good meat color. My nurse was completely amazed and when the doctor heard about me, he also was interested in hearing about this machine.
If anyone would like to know about this machine and how to get one…If you email me with MRSA in the subject line, I will take a chance and open the email. It is the most I can do to help another soul make it through MRSA…. Guess What MRSA is gone and my wound is a half inch wide, and three inches long and a half inch deep, with no order. I am a live. I think every school around the world should put one of these machines in thier schools. If I said it cost a thousand Dollars, I believe the schools should think our kids are worth it. However, I know it was less then a thousand Dollars. I just can not quote a price to you because I might be off. I will call this lady if someone emails me and let her know that the individual needs information. HAVE A GREAT DAY… there is hope msblchew61@hotmail.com
I am a CNA and have hands on experience with people with MRSA. Back in Colorado, they took a patient with MRSA much more seriously than they do around here. That is the scary part. In Colorado the health workers were aware of the patients condition and were giving the tools for precaution when working with the patients such as masks, gowns, and everything going out of the patients rooms were “red-bagged.”
Here, I was dumbfounded that the workers are not told (due to patient confidentiality) and nothing gets red-bagged. Sure we were giving masks….have to use the same one all day. In my opinion, having to put a used mask from a room with someone with MRSA in your pocket and carry it around into other residents rooms, bathrooms, and dining room and use and re-use it….becasue “we must conserve” was down right unacceptable. In my honest opinion, MRSA wouldn’t run so rampant if health workers could take the precautions we need so as to not have the diseaese spread.
The MRSA cases were rare, but seems like it is getting to be wide case up here. People need to be educated about the dangers and precautions needed to take with MRSA and there really needs to be more studies done on it to find a vaccine for it.
Most of the MRSA patients we got at the nursing home came from ST Joes Hospital. Maybe they should start there to get it somewhat under control. I don’t work at that nursing home anymore, but my girlfriend still does. She told me that one whole section of the home has patients with MRSA. That is scary.
I’d like to know how much Dr Hayes is being paid to push flu shots that haven’t worked.
There are not 36,000 flu deaths a year. This is a figure used all the time by the Dept of Health with no basis. In WA, there’s a couple flu deaths a year, the rest are deaths from pneumonia, mostly in elderly or severely immune compromised people. Think about all the people you know- have you ever known a young or middle ages person who died from a flu? Flu shots contain mercury- 25 mcg’s of the most dangerous mercury known to man- thimerosal- which crosses the blood brain barrier and becomes trapped in the brain. Flu shots destroy your immune system, making you more vulnerable to get sicker each time you get one. Many people I know got chronic fatigue immunodeficiency from flu shots and other vaccines like tetanus that are routinely given as we are convinced by doctors and media that we NEED these shots. Do your homework folks- stop getting these vaccines or you might be the next MRSA or immune system damaged patient. Alzheimer’s, autism, adhd, tourette’s, severe food allergies. These are all new disorders, all caused by toxins, many given to us in vaccines. Go to generationrescue. org, safeminds.org, 909shot.com. vaproject.org, mercuryexposure.org and others to get the right facts. For those skeptics, let me ask you- if we are the healthiest county in the world- then why are all our kids so sick? Why so many neurological disorders??
My sister died of MRSA, much like the student in WA. But she was diagnosed with it 5 different times and declared “cured” 5 different times. It took a while but I finally got some straight answers from a medical professional. MRSA isn’t cured - it goes dormant, only to pop its ugly head up again when the person’s immune system is weakened. MRSA so destroyed my sister’s lungs that she literally drown in her own blood. So those of you out there, who have had it once, be sure to remind your health-care professionals of your previous illness, and be sure they check for MRSA every time they draw blood!
i know a boy at my school who was doganosed with MRSA. they found it on his toe. and wound up cutting half of his foot off. now every night at my school they have to come in and sanitize the whole school. my point is that this is a big deal! and just because i’m a middle schooler dosent mean i don’t know what i’m talking about.
Hello everyone, (Please copy this recovery story and save it because it may be deleted) This is NOT spam, but a true MRSA RECOVERY story. Our family survived a vicious attack of flesh eating MRSA. I know this will be hard to believe, however we dealt with MRSA ourselves.My two son’s were viciously attacked by flesh eating boils. I had a more mild attack. The boils my sons had grew to the size of small grapefruits. Our lives depended on finding something that would cause the boils to go away.We did find something and it was pure and concentrated Allicin. We used it as suggested and got the results we needed. Since we used physicians strength pure and stable Allicin, we have not had ANY signs or symptoms of MRSA for over 2 yrs. My youngest son who also had flesh eating boils, did not need any antibiotics or medical care at all since we used pure Allicin. We did keep in close contact with our doctors through our recovery process. We used Allicin topically and internally. Physicians strength Allicin needs to be used properly to achieve the desired results. Because of our recovery we have been able to help many achieve the same results our family had. Feel free to email us if you would like our help with where to purchase physicians strength pure and stable Allicin and how to use it properly. God bless, Cathy Cathy@optimalhealthusa.com Here are some research links to help: http://www.allicinfacts.com/index.html http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/eccmid15/abstract.asp?id=37436 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15250668?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=peter%20josling&search_category=22 http://www.allimed.us/pdf/article/Cutler%5B6%5D.pdf http://www.allimed.us/pdf/article/AllicinPPT%5B10%5D.pdf Please consult with your doctor regarding any natural protocols that you want to combine with antibiotics.
My 13 year old grandson in Florida was just diagnosed. with mrsa. They are casually tellilng the family “oh everyone has it?” Should he get rid of his pets?