Back when my dad was a kid (the 40s), folks figured you only went to a hospital to die. It wasn’t just that medicine was still trial and error, it was the infection rates that were so dangerous.

American medicine had made major strides in this by the time I was growing up.

Unfortunately, we’re currently having a nostalgic return to the “go-to-hospital-and-die-of-infection” model of medical care. MRSA is one nasty mother. My dad had to battle it, along with the colon and liver cancer that eventually got him. Two of my uncles succumbed to it, one after a routine operation and one after a maintenance visit to a hospital.

We’d like to think that doctors, nurses, and hospital staff are fighting MRSA. And many are. However, we patients, and family of patients can do our part. Read this article by a doctor who has reduced infection rates at his hospital and others. Keep it close, so if you or a loved one goes to the hospital you can ask the right questions, and object to procedures that create a high infection risk.

Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need. Any doctor or nurse who objects to routine, infection-reducing procedures and materials needs to be reminded that MRSA can be dramatically reduced with a little forethought and care.

Kelly