She still maintains her status as an advisor and subject matter expert for the committee’s Public Reporting & Education, and Environmental Cleaning sub-committees. Alicia helped co-sponsor two California laws for public reporting of hospital infection rates and mandatory infection prevention education for all health care workers with patient contact (SB158 and SB1058, together known as “Nile’s Law” after 15 year old Nile Calvin Moss, the son of fellow advocates Ty and Carole Moss whom she met when they joined her MySpace group.) For nine years she fought for system-wide improvement by serving on the CA Department of Public Health’s Hospital-Associated Infection Prevention Advisory Committee. Now she is sought after national speaker presenting at conferences, associations, universities and hospitals everywhere. As soon as she was well enough, she also began going in person to medical schools and nursing programs to share her story and speak on infection prevention. In just a few months, the MySpace group Alicia created for Survivors and families touched by hospital infections and medical errors grew to over 2,500 people and she became one of the nation’s leading voices in patient safety. She shared examples of the deceptive behaviors and legal tricks employed by the healthcare system during nasty legal battles. Through video and blogs she documented the struggle of harmed patients to get complete copies of medical records or to correct inaccuracies. While still bedridden, using a ‘talk-to- type’ program and social media, Alicia began sharing her difficult road to recovery with others. For the next ten years, Alicia’s life revolved around the multitude of weekly follow-up medical care – everything from daily hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatments, to silver nitrate burning of her wound bed, to pelvic floor rehabilitation. “How could all of this be?” she wondered and resolved to make sure this kind of nightmare would never happen to anyone else. Alicia also learned that while his medical board record was clear, there were six medical malpractice lawsuits against her doctor on file at the local Burbank courthouse. The operating rooms were cited to the highest level of deficiency possible. The hospital meanwhile was cited by the local health department and CMS inspectors for being in violation of five state rules and ten federal laws for unsanitary conditions in their operating rooms, failures of infection prevention and control, and failure to report infections as mandated. Just immeasurable, excruciating pain!Īfter surviving six additional surgeries, nine blood transfusions and almost having her leg amputated, Alicia left the hospital with a cavernous open abdominal wound that took three years to close. She held her daughter steady while the doctor reopened the incision and then cut open the two rows of sutures he’d placed deep within her abdomen. Cole found herself assisting the doctor in a bedside procedure. ![]() Within an hour the black dot was a quarter-sized pustule signaling the first signs of flesh-eating disease. It was her vigilant mother who during a dressing change, noticed the tiny black dot which appeared out of nowhere above the C-section incision. Thankfully, Alicia’s parents Ron and Betty Cole had come from Ohio to be there for her operation and care for her during recovery. Little did the patient know that the highly regarded Burbank hospital had just that month embarked on a study to reduce their post-surgical infections. She left the operating room with a fever, nausea, and chills – all classic signs of sepsis – which were dismissed as “a bad response to the anesthesia.” Suddenly what should have been a two-day hospital stay rapidly descended into a two-month battle to save her life from the ravages of severe sepsis, Pseudomonas, MRSA, VRE and necrotizing fasciitis. Founder, Alliance for Safety Awareness fo Alicia Cole could never have imagined the plot twist her life would take when she entered Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center for elective fibroid removal surgery in August of 2006.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |