9 Patients Dead in Alabama After Contaminated IV Feeding Bags Used

This story is really disturbing. Take a look at this report from MSNBC.

"Historically, the hospital has not been a safe place for African Americans to go. There are still those elders that will tell you in a minute, “No cut!” They will not go anywhere near a hospital and don’t hesitate to share the story about how their mother went in to have a mole removed and they took her kidneys. But, in this case, several hospitals in Alabama, by no fault of their own, all received contaminated feeding bags.

According to MSNBC, in addition to the intravenous feeding bags used on patients at Select Specialty Hospital in Birmingham, Al., the other hospitals that were hit are: Baptist Princeton, Baptist Shelby, Medical West and Cooper Green in the Birmingham area and Baptist Prattville, north of Montgomery.

Two weeks ago, a couple hospitals saw cases of serratia marcescens bacteria increase and reported it to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Since the outbreak of the bacteria, somehow it was tracked down to the bags that are connected to IV tubes through which the patients that cannot be fed orally receive their nutrients. The company responsible for manufacturing the feeding bags is Meds IV–a Birmingham-based pharmacy. In addition to the nine that have died, 10 more people got sick from the bacteria.

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