Last week, symptoms indicating a gas gangrene infection in the leg were observed in a woman staying in the anaesthesiology and intensive care unit. The hospital director immediately established a crisis team, which decided to suspend admissions to the surgical department and disinfect the ambulance, operating theatre and anaesthesiology department. After undergoing a leg amputation, the patient was transported by plane to a hospital in the north of the country.
Gas gangrene is an infection caused by particularly dangerous anaerobic bacteria, which lead to tissue necrosis, putrefaction and the accumulation of bloody fluid and gas under the skin. The condition is accompanied by severe pain and swelling. The bacterium is not dangerous unless it enters deep wounds, where access to oxygen is limited.
“We will find out in a few days whether the woman was one hundred percent infected with gas gangrene,” hospital director Urszula Fuchs told Bolesławiec.org. It takes some time for the samples collected for analysis to mature. However, the hospital management and doctors preferred to be safe and therefore, without waiting for the bacteriological culture results, disinfected the rooms where the patient had stayed.
“We ordered a company that, using a mist sprayed with a special agent, disinfected the operating room and the anaesthesiology and intensive care department,” explains Jarosław Kuc, head of that department. Following an inspection, the sanitary authorities decided that the hospital could begin admitting patients again from Tuesday.
Let us add that everything began with an accident that occurred on 4 December at the intersection of Podgórna and Jeleniogórska streets. We wrote about it in Boleslawiec.org. The driver of a MAN lorry hit a woman on a pedestrian crossing. The injured woman, with a huge leg wound, was taken to the hospital in Bolesławiec. Later, after a suspected gas gangrene infection, she was transferred to a hospital in Gdynia for specialist treatment. Unfortunately, she died.
Updated 2007-12-12 20:26
Because of entirely unfounded opinions posted by anonymous individuals, we are publishing the full text of the conversation with the head of the department concerning the course of the patient’s treatment.
Jarosław Kuc: The patient was admitted in the afternoon after a road accident, directly from the operating theatre. Earlier, she had been hospitalised for some time in the admissions room and the orthopaedic department. She had a huge, contaminated laceration on her left lower limb, extending from the ankle to the left hip bone. The woman was admitted to the unit because she was in haemorrhagic shock. The doctors and nurses then fought the shock, administering blood until her condition was stabilised. The following day, the patient’s condition deteriorated slightly. She required assisted breathing and a ventilator. After another surgical and orthopaedic consultation, it appeared that the leg could be saved. Unfortunately, despite her condition beginning to stabilise, symptoms of gas gangrene appeared in the afternoon and, following the decision of the consulting orthopaedist and surgeon, an amputation was ordered. It was performed in the evening. After the amputation, the patient’s condition was stable. The nearest hyperbaric chamber unit with suitable equipment was contacted in order to treat the patient appropriately. Unfortunately, the Wrocław unit did not have a ventilator for the chamber, so the nearest centre was in the Tricity area. At 8:30, the patient was taken to Legnica, from where a plane transported her to the aforementioned centre. […] As soon as the patient had left the unit, a therapeutic committee was convened, consisting of the epidemiological nurse and the management. Certain standard procedures had to be carried out, including washing all the rooms where the patient had stayed with disinfectants and ordering a company that, using a special disinfectant, fogged the operating theatre and intensive care department.
(KG report)