Male Speaker: Morin Daly used to walk in this Staten Island part with her mother Joanna, an avert bird watcher and former girls' scout leader. Two years ago mother and daughter were shopping together when Joanna fell and broker her shoulder.
Morin Daly: She entered that hospital as a healthy 63-year old woman she walked in with only a fractured shoulder.
Male Speaker: One week after a surgery to fix the fracture, Joanna woke up in terrible pain; her shoulder had become infected with staph bacteria the most common cause of serious infections in hospital patients. The infection quickly spread through her bloodstream to her lungs.
Morin Daly: The night she was into bed and put on the ventilator, she was actually running a 106 degree temperature. We could feel the heat coming off the bed when we went near them.
Male Speaker: Joanna didn't have an ordinary staph infection she had a superbug that's -- to conventional antibiotics, the type of staph know as MRSA.
John A. Jernigan: Methicillin-Resistant Staph Aureus tends to be resistant to multiple types of antibiotics that we usually like to use to treat staph infections.
Male Speaker: A couple of decades ago, MRSA was rare making up less than 1% of staph infections seen in hospitals, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has documented a dramatic increase over the past few years.
John A. Jernigan: Now we see that at least in intensive care units in the United States probably about 65% of all the infections caused by staph tend to be resistant methicillin and tend to be MRSA.
Male Speaker: MRSA can spread from one patient to another on the hands, clothing or equipment of healthcare workers. The bacteria can get inside the body during surgery or other procedures and it can be fatal. Four months after breaking her shoulder Joanna Daly died of her infection.
Morin Daly: I had no idea that postoperative infections can do this and completely ravage a body and eventually kill a person.
Male Speaker: Researchers are looking for new weapons against MRSA with some success.
Male Speaker: Some are new classes of antibiotics and other new ones are on the way so the pharmaceutical companies are responding and developing new agents but this is a slow and expensive process.
Male Speaker: That's why public health officials are urging stronger measures to prevent the spread of MRSA.
Male Speaker: Every healthcare worker has to either wear gloves that they discard after touching the patient or if they use the bare hands even to shake hands with the patient, they need to wash their hands with soap and water.
Male Speaker: Morin Daly is convinced her mother would be alive if her healthcare providers had been more meticulous about hygiene.
Morin Daly: If you see someone who you did not see wash their hands you did not see them put the gloves on or if they touch anything in the room then contaminate their hands before they touch you, say to them no go wash your hands, do not touch anything -- I wish we had done that.
Male Speaker: Patients who need surgery can also protect themselves by looking for a surgeon with low infection rate and by discussing precautions against MRSA before the operation.
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