BY KATE HEANEY
A North Donegal mother whose new-born baby contracted MRSA at Letterkenny General Hospital is angry at being left in the dark on how to deal with the infection.
The mother, who did not wished to be named, gave birth to a healthy baby at the hospital in the past two months.
Speaking to the Donegal News this week, she described the fear and uncertainty she went through because of an obvious lack of procedure or policy in the hospital to assist a mother who finds herself in such a predicament.
"I did not know a new-born baby could get MRSA. I thought it was only older people or people with an open wound," she explains.
"When I went into hospital to give birth, I had my own sterile wipes and hand wash with me because I was conscious of hospital borne infections like this. If someone had told me my new-born baby could get MRSA I would have been a lot more vigilant to ensure anyone coming near us had washed their hands," she said.
The mother, who has other young children at home, was discharged with the baby on the third day after his birth. However, she but brought him back to the hospital the following day because of a smelly discharge from his umbilical cord. It was swabbed and the swab was tested. Her GP rang her the next day to say the baby had tested positive for MRSA.
Devastated by the result, she was at a loss as to how contagious MRSA was, could it spread to her other children, could it live on surfaces in the house and even transfer to visitors.
The MRSA spread to the baby's eye, throat and groin and the mother was terrified that she had caused the spread by bathing the baby. No one told her whether she should or should not bath her baby or what effect it would have on the infection.
As soon as possible she went out and bought extra cleaning materials that were capable of killing bacteria.
"When I rang the maternity ward to ask them what I should do about it, I was told to speak to my public health nurse. When I told her that the baby had MRSA she said she had not been informed and she went to get information for me and for her. I don't think she had experienced a new born baby with MRSA before.
"My public health nurse was as helpful as she could be in light of the absence of information about MRSA and new-born babies. She was very good and got me what information she could, as did my GP. But surely the fact that this is a hospital borne infection, the hospital should provide new mothers with a pack that tells them what to do in this situation.
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