A Foreword by Doug Draper
If you’re wondering if Niagara residents may be over-reacting to the C. difficile outbreak that has so far claimed the lives of at least 15 people in our regional hospitals here, well then maybe ‘Canada’s National Newspaper’ is overreacting too. But I don’t think so.
The Welland, Ontario hospital is one of three hospital sites in the region, including the Niagara Falls and St. Catharines General hospital sites, where deaths from the superbug C. difficile have occurred.
“Niagara Health System, a sprawling network of seven hospitals serving 434,000 people in a dozen communities,” continues The Globe article, “has declared an outbreak of Clostridium difficile, commonly known as C. difficile, commonly known as C. difficile, at three of its sites.”
In this article, St. Catharines resident Joyce Western is quoted talking about her 89-year-old mother who was admitted to the St. Catharines General Hospital this past May suffering from pneumonia. After her admission she began showing symptoms of C. difficile and died shortly thereafter. “In my opinion,” says Western in the article, “if they hadn’t transferred her to the hospital, she would still be alive today.”
A public rally will be held this coming Wednesday, July 6 at the Greater Niagara General Hospital site in Niagara Falls, Ontario at 3 p.m. All who are concerned are welcome to attend.
To read the entire Globe and Mail article, click on http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/new-health/health-news/deadly-superbug-outbreak-hits-problem-plagued-network-of-ontario-hospitals/article2085247/
Niagara At Large welcomes you to share your comments on this issue below.
Niagara At Large 
Is it true that Deb Matthews is touting this as a major coup for the NHS, which is now officially a Centre of Excellence for contracting hospital-acquired diseases? (LOL)
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Well, well, well – where have the doctors been at? The following long-ago memo may help clarify:
MD core group, October 12, 2009: Not much is happening with us – but a lot is going on all around us. NHS is consolidating (and gloating over) its ‘win’ in Niagara’s southern tier (Port & Fort). Fortunately, time-critical emergencies from Fort Erie will be taken by ambulance from home directly to Buffalo’s ECMC. Of course, that will be a paramedical decision with no FE family doctors involved. Sad that they opted themselves out. LHIN is also pushing ahead with its CHC model of primary ‘health’ care. Again, bureaucrats only, not doctors, involved in the decision-making – at least locally. Farther afield, OMA is making windy pronouncements, taking no action. Again locally, it does seem that a group of 15 family doctors in NF is taking care of its own perceived needs (and threats to it), making patients stick to their contracts, etc., but, unfortunately, other doctor-run walk-in clinics, instead of the lay-bureaucrats, are their selected nemesis – a target to boycott. We, a potentially unique core MD group, have a chance of doing constructive things, but, few takers. Recruitment is stalled. Perhaps we should invite the other two sides of the medical professional trio, selected nurses and pharmacists, to join us. Would appreciate your thoughts on it. /Best regards, Bill
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This sad development — that hospitals are virus-ridden places that maim and kill people — is as surprising as the Cancer Society spending all donations on administration.
Western Allopathic practitioners don’t frakking get it. The body is not a car. You can’t keep slicing, burning, and poisoning it to get well. You can’t keep throwing bread mold at it to kill certain bacteria, and not expect that bacteria to develop resistance. Everything live — with the exception of those depressed — wants to live and grow; that includes the bad lifeforms as well as the good.
Take responsibility for your health. Give up consuming poisons the corporations tell you is food. Grow your own instead. Take some homeopathic copper, gold, and silver to cure infections instead of wiping out good and bad bacteria with antibiotics.
And stay away from hospitals. Too many irresponsible freeloaders expect magic pills to allow them to carry on with their unhealthy lifestyles. The pharmaceutical corps — our true governors, pulling the strings of the puppet politicians — continue to perpetuate their myth. Where do you think all our tax dollars toward “health” are going?
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