Sub-human Treatment – Mike Condon spent a total of 247 days in UHL after contracting MRSA

by Donal O’Regan

A 73-YEAR-OLD Pallasgreen man says the last two years of his life have been hell due to the “botched” health care he received in County Limerick.

Mike Condon underwent a routine hip operation in Croom Orthopaedic Hospital on February 28, 2013. He subsequently spent a total of 247 days in University Hospital Limerick over the next year. Mike had four hip replacement operations and three times it had to put back in after he contracted MRSA.

When he should be enjoying his retirement after working hard all his life, Mike will be confined to using crutches for the rest of his life. He has MRSA; lost 25 per cent of the use of his kidneys; has to take antibiotics and painkillers every day and can’t go out in the sun.

Mike isn’t even sure he needed the hip operation in the first place but he went along with the medical advice.

“I had the operation in Croom. On the second or third day after it I wanted to go to the toilet so they just closed the door and left me there. I blacked out, collapsed, fell off the toilet and the hip came out.

“I must have been 15 minutes on the floor trying to call somebody to come in to help me. They should have done blood tests after the operation which they didn’t do. It was shown that my blood count was low and I was getting anaemic.

“I was left for 24 hours because it was the weekend and they couldn’t find a surgeon to put my hip back into place. I had to wait. They propped me up with a load of painkillers and put the hip back on Monday. They transferred me to the Regional because my kidneys went due to the trauma and the huge medication I had been on,” said Mike.

The well known Limerickman was a founder member of Bruff RFC and their first hooker.

“My leg was huge and I have seen fellows with big legs playing rugby but my right leg was so big it would make them all look small. I was fasting two whole days waiting to go down to theatre for my hip to be done. The next thing they would come up at 9am and say, ‘We have priorities, we can’t take you down now, it will be tomorrow morning’,” said Mike. After three or four days the leg burst open in the bed.

“The infection was unbelievable. That was the MRSA. They took me down to theatre then,” he said.

Originally he was placed in a semi-private ward with five/six people but then he was put in isolation.

“I should have been in isolation from day one but they didn’t detect that I had MRSA which was wrong again on the hospital because they never treated me or looked for the cause of it,” said Mike, who to this day doesn’t know if he contracted MRSA in Croom or UHL. What he does know is this period of his life will affect him for ever.

The hip had to be taken out because the infection had spread to the bone. A steel pin was put in to the leg for a couple of months to see if the infection could be cured. Mike lost count of the number of blood transfusions he got.

Since being admitted in March he spent a total of 247 days in UHL.

Full Article Here: Routine hip operation led to MRSA and life with crutches – Limerick Leader.