Importance of accurate death certificates (and frequently woeful absence of such)

[Anstey Nomad]

It also seems to still be extremely difficult to persuade anyone to list a hospital acquired infection as a cause of death.

AN

[Margaret in Burton]

Originally Posted by Anstey Nomad

It also seems to still be extremely difficult to persuade anyone to list a hospital acquired infection as a cause of death.

AN

That would be admitting it happened.

[Olde Crone]

Margaret and AN

you are right. My friend died just after Xmas, from MRSA which she contracted whilst having an emergency operation for liver cancer. The cause of death on her cert is Cancer of the Liver. No mention of MRSA. Her husband who is of the old school which believes that doctors are gods, told me earnestly that "most people have got MRSA but it only comes out when you have an operation".

She would have died within days anyway, but that is really not the point.

OC

[Margaret in Burton]

Christmas Eve 2005 my OH was rushed back into theatre after a major spinal op to remove calcium from around his spinal cord, the calcium was trapping the spinal cord and would have severed it leaving him paralysed from the chest down. He got C Diff in the wound. They found he was allergic to the antibiotics they gave him and he had to have the wound flushed out and re stitched. Luckily he recovered, wonder what the cause of death would have been if he hadn't? The op was not life threatening any more than any surgery, it threatened his way of life not life itself.