Ten rooms infected with a mysterious highly resistant bacterium (BHRE), this is what the Jérémie family said during a press conference, held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday in the Cayenne hospital center. The hospital for its part announces the end of the epidemic situation at the BHRE.
It’s July 18. Felton Jérémie, 72, is returning to Cayenne hospital center (CHC) to undergo a blood transfusion in connection with the fight against colon cancer which affects him. A banal ambulatory care. Since then, the man from Sinnamary has not been released from the hospital.
“I came to see him on July 20. He had a fever, they didn’t want to let him out. We came back on the 23rd for his birthday. We wanted to bring it out. His veins were marked by the bites. They hurt him. We couldn’t touch him. He suffered a relentless while he has a chamber already installed on his body as part of chemotherapy which can let other products pass”, annoys Elsa Deshayes, his daughter.
The medical team of medicine B in which Felton Jérémie is found has detected a highly resistant and emerging bacterium in the patient who has become very contagious. An antibiotic should be administered. Problem: the room in which the chemotherapy passes is also infected by another bacterium so the caregivers decide to go intravenously according to the family. “They even wanted to prick him on his feet as this increases the risk of phlebitis”, Elsa wonders.
The latter provokes the ire of a doctor when he sees her kissing her father on the forehead. “There I understood that something serious was happening but the doctors refused to give us information”, complains the girl.
“Worse, they accuse my brother of contaminating the whole service. It is shameful. He can’t walk how could he?”, adds Rose-Aimée Saïbou.
An outbreak of BHRE since May
The two women cannot give the names of the doctors so the reported comments are difficult to verify.
The family is convinced that their father, husband, brother contracted this bacterium in the hospital. “It is a nosocomial disease but the hospital always wants patients to be silent. It works because we are afraid of losing our bed if we arouse their displeasure. They hide a lot of things. We can no longer trust”assures Mrs. Couëta-Polonie, a liberal nurse who came to join the family out of solidarity when she encountered problems in the neurology department for one of her parents.
The Jérémie family ensures that the ten rooms of medicine B are contaminated, including the patient who shares the room with their father. “We need other families to join us. We can’t keep hiding the truth without doing something”, denounces Elsa Deshayes.
On the side of the hospital, the vehemence of the family surprises: “We have received no complaint, no complaint, no request from the users’ commission or from the hospital mediators.”
On the other hand, the presence of bacteria that are highly resistant to emerging antibiotics (BHRe) in some patients is confirmed since May but the hospital refuses to communicate on the figures. “As of July 26, 2022, the CHC is no longer in a BHRe epidemic situation”, provide its services.
“Systematic weekly screening of patients from the departments concerned has been set up, as well as the hospitalization of patients confirmed positive for BHRe in a dedicated unit. The specialty services concerned by these BHRe have been reorganized by identifying three zones: a zone for the management of contact cases, a zone for the management of confirmed cases
who cannot (because of their pathology) be transferred to the dedicated unit and an area of
management of BHRe non-contact patients”, specifies in a press release the CHC.
Restore trust
As for the care received by the parent of the family, “it must be certain that this is related to the bacteria and not to the primary pathology for which the patient is being treated at the CHC. We obviously cannot comment on the patient’s file.”, tempers the Cayenne hospital.
The dissatisfaction of the family marks above all the lack of confidence in the hospital establishment. The lack of communication with patients and outside the enclosure does not help to restore this link, which is nevertheless essential in the course of care.
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