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Miami vets get procedures with unsterile equipment (thousands of colonoscopies)

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seafan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 01:35 PM
Original message
Miami vets get procedures with unsterile equipment (thousands of colonoscopies)
Source: Miami Herald

MIAMI -- A Veterans Affairs hospital here has notified thousands of patients that their colonoscopies were performed with improperly sterilized equipment, officials said Monday.
The hospital urged about 3,260 patients who had colonoscopies between May 2004 and March 12 of this year to get tests for HIV, hepatitis and other diseases.
The VA insisted the risk of infection was minimal, saying the tubing that was improperly cleaned didn't make contact with patients.

It was the second recent announcement of errors during colonoscopies at VA facilities.

.....

Last month, 6,378 patients at a clinic in Murfreesboro, Tenn., were told they may have been exposed to infectious body fluids during colonoscopies.
The VA said 1,800 veterans treated at an ear, nose and throat clinic in Augusta, Ga., were also alerted they could have been exposed to an infection due to improper disinfection of an instrument, though officials said the risk was "extremely small."

The VA hasn't said whether it expects more facilities to announce similar problems, though Meek cautioned the number of affected people "could quickly expand to include a much larger pool of people."

.....

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/964045.html



While the moneyed elite complain about returning their taxpayer-funded bonuses.
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damntexdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 02:01 PM
Response to Original message
1. A rather nasty way to say 'up yours.'
Colonoscopies are bad enough as it is.
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riverdeep Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 02:05 PM
Response to Original message
2. What can you say except, EEEWWW!
Getting a letter saying that you need to get tested for contagious diseases can not be a pleasant experience.
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NOW tense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 02:07 PM
Response to Original message
3. Congrats VA
You people really know how give it to our veterans. The phrase "rub some dirt on it" is not a good health care practice.
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Doremus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 02:13 PM
Response to Original message
4. How does this happen? Do they happen to notice that someone's doing their job wrong?
And then ask them how long they've been doing it that way?

I just don't understand the scenario.
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Duer 157099 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:04 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. I don't know the specifics but I can imagine one
Perhaps the autoclave (sterilizing equipment) that was routinely used - perhaps a smaller unit that only could accomodate smaller objects, like tubing - one day they notice something not quite right, and then look at the logs for the equipment and discover that for some period it has been malfunctioning, not getting to quite the right temperature or pressure (or something - something minor, but enough to warrant concern) and voila.

It happens.
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Doremus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-25-09 10:07 AM
Response to Reply #7
25. That makes sense. Thanks for shedding light on that. n/t
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Blaze Diem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 02:45 PM
Response to Original message
5. No damn excuse for this. Our tax $ fund their care. Our tax $ also fund the care of Congress, Pres.,
and all govt employees.
WTF would they all say if their care was this shoddy?

We need to demand better care of the people who answer to the top level of our Govt.

This is careless and deserves firing or shut down of the facility that provides such incompetent staffing.
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democrank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 02:50 PM
Response to Original message
6. Absolutely no excuse for this.
None!
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Belial Donating Member (503 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:17 PM
Response to Original message
8. Gov't Healthcare at its best.. yet again..
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:18 PM
Response to Original message
9. Do vets have to use private insurance or out of pocket for these follow up tests???
Hmmmmmm Mr. President? What say?
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Belial Donating Member (503 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:23 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. You go back to the VA..
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No Elephants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:37 PM
Response to Reply #9
13. In fairness, no one suggested that they pay out of pocket, only that their insurers pay.
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HillWilliam Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:32 PM
Response to Original message
11. Not surprised in the least
VAMC Miami is one of the nastiest places I've ever been in, bar none. When my dad was a patient there, I used to visit a lot of other vets who didn't have family or friends, so I spent a lot of time there. Often, I'd go arrive in the morning at sunup and there would be some poor old man in the hallway who'd expired during the night with a sheet over him. I'd run paperwork and do battle for dad all day, visit some other vets and late that evening that same poor old dead man would still be laying in the hallway on the same gurney, hadn't been moved all day.

The stink was awful no matter when you went. The staff were overworked to the point of "don't give a damn" and the experienced doctors were of the "high and mighty", "you're a piece of meat to experiment on so I can publish a white paper" type. The inexperienced were med students overflowed from Jackson down the street -- basically the f-ups who couldn't make it at the county hospital.

Humanity? Not to be found at VAMC Miami. Lost records, battles with clerical staff, denial of routine care, endless red tape, and "NO" were all de rigueur.

I'm a veteran myself and I'd rather die off than submit myself to the ministrations of those ghouls. I've seen it first-hand. We treat our pets better than we treat our veterans.
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Belial Donating Member (503 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:36 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. It's a good example.. one of many when you let the Gov't run
healthcare.. this is just for Vets.. I cannot wait to see what we come up with for the masses..
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No Elephants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:39 PM
Response to Reply #12
14. Dying for lack of money and health insurance is better? (RIP, Dave.)
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Grinchie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 06:48 PM
Response to Reply #12
21. Didn't they outsource much of the VA to Private Entities during the Bush Admin?
Edited on Tue Mar-24-09 06:54 PM by Grinchie
I can't remember the name of the Corporation, but I'm sure the smart people here will rhelp recall the name.

2008 http://www.unionvoice.org/afgerocks/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=21020195
AFGE Files GAO Protest Against Outsourcing at Salisbury VA Hospital: AFGE last week filed a protest against VA's direct conversion of 200 federal jobs at the Salisbury VA Medical Center in North Carolina to private hospitals. VA earlier this month announced the Salisbury VA hospital will no longer provide inpatient, emergency or surgical medical services, but will instead rely on community hospitals for these services. This sudden change in VA policy follows recent multi-million dollar expenditure at the Salisbury VA hospital for new operating rooms, intensive care, and acute care equipment, as well as significant numbers of newly hired physicians and nurses. In the protest filed with the Government Accountability Office on Oct. 17, AFGE argued that the agency is violating federal law prohibiting using agency funds to outsource work done by more than 10 federal employees without providing current employees with the opportunity to compete for the work. VA is also violating Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76, which bans direct conversion of federal jobs to contractor performance. AFGE is asking the GAO to order VA to cancel the planned outsourcing.

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Grinchie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 06:22 PM
Response to Reply #11
19. One of our friends contracted CDiff from here father that was in a VA Hospital
This person had survived Cancer, Survived the World Trade disaster, then picked up a virulent form of CDiff while visiting a relative. It took two years to recover, and treatment involved experimental treatments with new monoclonal antibodies.

When I explored my "Benefits" of the VA Hospital system after my tenure in the military in the 80's, I walked in one day, took one look, and turned around to never consider that option of health care/destruction ever again. Benefits.. heh.

My father was a medical professor, and when I grew up I was immersed in walkthroughs, made daily rounds as a child with him, and have seen the various shades of medical care throught the decades. I saw the labs, I saw the Rabbits in cages that told women they were pregnant, and I saw the Autopsies a few times. Medicine is still stuck in reductionist mode

The current state of the art in Hospitals is a facade. They are fancy looking Libraries without any books. They can't clean the environment because it's too expensive, and theyv'e basically outlawed disinfectants like Ozone. Our medical system is so messed up that you are certainly better off preventing disease in the first place, but the information for being successful is suppressed, and basically un-taught in schools.

Concepts such as Pleiomorphism still are hidden from the public, yet the Scientists have proven that it is a fact. Horizontal Gene Transfer among bacteria is a Fact. Bacteria transforming to different morphologys depending on nutrients or other environment stimulus are Fact. Biolectric Medicine, denigrated as Quackery, has been proven to trigger beneficial effects in cells. The human Body and all of it's cells all behave under the same rules at the Atomic level. We see MRI machines that can paint clear pictures of molecules resonating at different frequencies, they people disbelieve that they can do the same thing and destroy particular cells using dissonance. It's like the Glass shattering due to harmonic sound energy does not apply to Humans, Cells, Bacteria or Virii.

It is undeniable that a huge breakthrough in health is coming (Actually, its here now, but to destructive to the Medical Industry), but until people demand study on these fields, the Corporations will continue to fund only Allopathic medicine and ignore the works of Royal Rife, Dr. Weston A. Price, and all the rest that can tear the complexity away from how our molecules interact. These technologies also are hidden by the Military jealously I am sure.

Ever wonder and Fluoride in the drinking water? I sure did. I grew up under the propaganda that it helped teeth. However, nobody ever talked about the external effects, such as contaminated all the food, landscape, rivers and oceans with this stuff diluted in massive quantities of water.

Then I discovered the link. Thermoluminescent Dosimeter of which calcium fluoride or lithium fluoride are both compound which possess this property. It is quite possible that the Goverment was dosing us up twith Fluoride in order to actually measure the amounts of radition people have been exposed to during the extremely active period in the 50's where the military was continually testing Nuclear wapons..

In theory, all they would need to do is go collect teeth from victims, heat them up and measure the amount of light they emitted, which could be measured. Calcium Fluoride is what Fluoridated water leaves in your teeth when subjected to fluoridated water.

Now that we see the reduced threat of Nuclear war, the fight for Fluoridated Water supplies are not being fought, and this practice is being phased out, most likely due to the fact that it is indeed toxic, regardless of dosage. Over time, it's just as toxic as an overdose.

History is an amazing thing if one transports themselves back into the time period and thinks like they would in the past. Unfortunately, people have not been taught to put the connections together, and would rather other people do it for them.

Keep an eye on John Kanzius. He has resurrected Rife, Tesla and Stan Meyer in his lastest Re-"Discovery". Let's see if they allow him to penetrate the suppression of RF Resonance, or whether he is absorbed into the Corporate fold anfter the economic hit men get to him.
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AngryAmish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-25-09 08:11 AM
Response to Reply #19
24. Dude, that must be some high-grade shit you are smoking
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MadHound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 03:43 PM
Response to Original message
15. It's starting to get to the point where it is more hazardous to your health to go to the hospital
Than to stay at home and treat your disease there. Between shit like this and MRSA epidemics currently stalking our hospitals, visiting one is really starting to take your life in your hands.
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antimatter98 Donating Member (537 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 04:10 PM
Response to Original message
16. Typical BushCo treatment of vets. Will Obama react or go to sleep? n/t
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Thothmes Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-25-09 05:15 AM
Response to Reply #16
23. The VA
has had a very checkered history of patient care for as many years as I can remember. It didnt make a difference whether it was a Repub administration or a Democratic administration. I can remember one incident during the Carter years where the local VA hospital amutated the wrong leg on a WWII vet.
In the mid sixties, the vets in one ward of that hospital use to occupy their time by shooting roaches off the walls with rubber bands. The treatment at some VA facilities has been a shame decades.
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Oldtimeralso Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 04:29 PM
Response to Original message
17. Last Year Every Medical Facility Performed Colonoscopies
In the state of Nevada was closed due to improper sterilization of equipment, but that was done for a profit reason.
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indimuse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 05:27 PM
Response to Original message
18. totally F'D UP!!! k&r
ENOUGH ALREADY!
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Grinchie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 06:46 PM
Response to Original message
20. I guess all one needs for proof is Trying to clean a Cell Phone
It cannot be done. I challenge anyone to try and truly clean the keyboard they are using.

These endoscopes are pretty complicated pieces of machinery, and despite what they claim, chemical disinfectants do not always work.

There was another thread entitled Colonoscpoies post in the past day or so, where many people added their experiences of the procedure to the OP. One of them caught my attention, where the poster related a bout of Flatulence after the procedure. This is typical of a new type of flora establishing itslef, and most likely the result of poor disinfection.

Yes, you could get the same germ from eating contaminated food, so there are other vectors. However, the Cheerleaders immediately made vociferous statement of how it could not be related to poor sterilization.

I someth=imes wonder how people can refuse to see obvious trhuthes that exist in the world. Their belief makes them blind to anything that could cause them to think twice and review the situation. This attitude seems to be growing, and it worries me more than any economic collapse.
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llmart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-24-09 09:16 PM
Response to Reply #20
22. I caught a segment of theToday Show......
recently where a guy had written a book about how we have become a nation of people who are overtesting for everything medical. I often said that if I had every test they recommend for people over 50, I'd spend the rest of my life running to the doctor/hospitals and no time living.
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