Safe Care Campaign was founded by Victoria
and Armando Nahum in 2006 after 3 different members of their family were infected in 3 different hospitals in 3 different states in just 10 months’ time.
Their son, Joshua died from an infection acquired in the hospital, but not until after bacteria in his skull caused so much pressure around his brain that it pushed part of his brain into his spinal column, making him a permanent ventilator-dependent quadriplegic.
He was 27.
Preventing
Health Care
and Community
Acquired Infections
Whether you are a caregiver, a patient or the family member of a patient and want to know how to prevent health care associated and community acquired infections, you need the important information detailed in:
© 2007 SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN
This INTERACTIVE TIMELINE shows the birth and progress of SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN and highlights the many proactive people and organizations that have been instrumental in helping Victoria and Armando Nahum to bring focus, better practices, education and solutions to the serious problem of healthcare acquired infections.
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JULY 2009
VICTORIA AND ARMANDO APPEAR ON THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER TO TALK ABOUT THE HIGH COST OF INFECTIONS IN AMERICAN HEALTH CARE
Health care acquired infections cost the health care industry more than $40,000,000.00 every single year. More than 4,600 patients become infected each day and of those, 271 die from their infections.
Every single day.
In just one decade, more patients have died from health care acquired infections than all of the men who died in every American battle since the United States began.
This includes the Revolutionary War all the way through the War in Iraq.
JUNE 2009
SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN RECEIVES A LETTER FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA
In response to earlier correspondence to the President, Victoria and Armando receive a letter from President Obama.
In it, he promises to lower health care costs, expand coverage and, improve the quality of care for all Americans.
JUNE 2009
CHAMPION’S KIT
DISTRIBUTED TO
MORE THAN 2,000
HOSPITALS
Victoria appears on the nationally syndicated radio show called: Patient Power with Andrew Schorr. Andrew’s mission is to help patients and family members learn more about their health concern so they can make informed decisions and feel in control.
When our son was ill, I watched your nurses come in and out of his room by the hour and rather than just noticing random women with a regular job to do, I instead saw what angels looked like, masquerading in scrubs with name tags and stethoscopes to complete the disguise, caring for him generously and genuinely with real humanity integrated into their sense and deed of significant duty.
I heard endearing compassion in their voices and saw true concern in their eyes that made me want to be like them somehow.
Their gestures were warm and their care was competent. To them, our son was their own personal mission. They cared for him well; I would tell anyone - I believe they did their best.
I know so.
Excerpts from Victoria Nahum’s
A MOTHER’S LETTER TO A CEO
APRIL 2009
SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN IS A CONTENT CONTRIBUTOR TO THE OPRAH SHOW FEATURING A FOCUS ON MRSA AND HOW TO PREVENT IT
On April28, 2009, OPRAH
features stories on MRSA and other
resistant organism that take a terrible
toll on human life and the cost of
health care.
VICTORIA SPEAKS IN CONJUNCTION WITH
KIMBERLY-CLARK HEALTH CARE’S HAI WATCH
NATIONAL BUS TOUR
HAI is a critical health care issue that touches many thousands of people each year. To help promote education and awareness of HAIs, Kimberly-Clark created the HAI Education Bus, a unique mobile classroom that is touring the nation, visiting hospitals and health care practitioners across America and bringing accredited CE programs, delivered right to their front door.
JANUARY 2009
NBC/UNIVERSAL PARTNERS WITH SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN TO PRODUCE “THE SAFE PATIENT” AND BEGINS AIRING THE SERIES OF 10 INFECTION PREVENTION PROGRAMS FOCUSED ON EDUCATING PATIENTS IN 2,600 AMERICAN HOSPITALS
OCTOBER 8, 2008
THE NATION’S TOP HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS RELEASE COMPENDIUM
OF STRATEGIES TO PREVENT HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS
The Compendium of Strategies to Prevent
Health-Care Associated Infections in
Acute Care Hospitals
Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008, 10 a.m. EST
Our PANEL:
Patrick J. Brennan, MD (HICPAC / SHEA)
Deborah Yokoe, MD (SHEA)
David Classen, MD (SHEA)
Marcia Patrick, RN, MSN, CIC (APIC)
Robert A. Wise, MD (JC)
Rich Umbdenstock, AHA)
Victoria Nahum (Safe Care Campaign)
National Press Club, Washington, D.C.:
The nation’s top health care organizations release a compendium of strategies to prevent health care associated infections so that all American Hospitals can have similar infection prevention goals along with commonly acknowledged approaches that are know to work. (They are listed by topic below and are downloadable as PDFs.)
OCTOBER 2008
INTERNATIONAL INFECTION CONTROL CONFERENCE
IN SANTIAGO, CHILE INVITES SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN
Santiago, Chile: The IFIC (International Federation of Infection Control),
is an organization created to provide the essential tools, education
materials and communication that unite the existing Infection Control
societies and foster development of Infection Control organizations
where they are needed. In order to help share the Nahum family’s story
in an attempt to underscore the urgent need for solutions to the worldwide problem of infections, 3M Worldwide takes the lead in sponsoring a poignant video featuring Victoria and the story of Safe Care campaign to show to attendees during the IFIC 9th Congress to be held in Santiago, Chile in October.
OCTOBER 2008
WALL STREET JOURNAL columnist Laura Landro, helps continue
SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN’S focus on prevention
Journalist Charles Kenney documents the quality movement’s impact, citing the work of Sorrell King as well as the Nahums in his new book:
“THE BEST PRACTICE: HOW THE
NEW QUALITY MOVEMENT IS
TRANSFORMING MEDICINE”
Charles Kenney
Victoria Nahum
Sorrell King
JULY 2008
JUNE 2008
Atlanta, GA: CNN features Victoria and Armando’s Safe Care Campaign during the 4th of July holiday weekend as Elizabeth Cohen, CNN’s Health Correspondent does a full feature story on Heroes of Patient Empowerment.
Chicago, IL: Consumers Advancing Patient Safety writes a FEATURE STORY on Safe Care Campaign saying: “There are many separate groups at work today on different aspects of patient safety ...
... it means many minds (are) focusing intently on many pieces of the problem, developing many approaches ...
... It may be our best hope: multiplying the power of
“Change one thing, change everything.”
London, U.K.: Safe Care Campaign’s message of “Change One Thing, Change Everything” is presented at London’s Royal College of Physicians - the first medical institution in England to receive a Royal Charter. It was founded in 1518 and is one of the most active of all medical professional organizations. Since the College’s creation as the College of Physicians (it acquired the “Royal” prefix in 1674) by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518, it has engaged in a wide range of activities dedicated to its overall aim of upholding and improving standards of medical practices. Keith Hague, CEO of London’s HCA hospitals, resolves to use segments of Victoria’s filmed appearance as part of heightened infection prevention campaign.
JANUARY - JUNE 2008
Atlanta, GA: Since last March when the first planning meeting was held, the CDC, APIC and Safe Care Campaign were making progress.
Krissy Rainisch, MPH, Health Scientist at the Division of Health Care Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the project manager, a great contributor with good ideas who leads the project well.
The PATIENT ADMISSION VIDEO, the important counterpart to the airline industry’s passenger
safety video is being discussed,
scripted and produced. Clearly,
the HAND HYGIENE aspect of
safe care was the focus.
After many meetings, 2 days of shooting and weeks of editing, the video is almost ready for wide distribution in hospitals. A generous grant from Kimberly-Clark Health Care makes it possible for hospitals to use it at will because the finished DVD will be distributed for FREE. This is to occur at APIC’s Annual Conference to be held in Denver, Colorado in June.
Denver, CO: Finally, Victoria’s vision for a patient safety focused hospital admission process comes to fruition. In June at the APIC Annual Conference in Denver, thousands of copies of the new video /DVD are distributed. In it, the CDC’s Dr. John Jernigan welcomes and addresses the viewer as the clear topic becomes HAND HYGIENE practices and what patients can reasonably expect from their caregivers. It gives instructions and even demonstrations on how everyone who touches the patient should wash their hands; empowering patients and their families to ask those who touch them to wash or sanitize their hands in front of them.
Almost simultaneously, the Joint Commission’s 2009 National Patient Safety Goals are released, wisely and proactively including wording within GOAL #13 that calls for a new element of best care. An excerpt from GOAL#13 reads:
Goal 13
Encourage [patient]s’ active involvement in their own care as a [patient] safety strategy.
NPSG.13.01.01
Identify the ways in which the [patient] and his or her family can report concerns about safety and encourage
them to do so. Communication with the [patient] and family about all aspects of care, treatment, and services
is an important characteristic of a culture of safety. When the [patient] knows what to expect, he or she is more
aware of possible errors and choices. The [patient] can also be an important source of information about
potential adverse events and hazardous conditions.
Rationale for NPSG.13.01.01
Elements of Performance for NPSG.13.01.01
1.The patient and family are educated on available reporting methods for concerns related to care, treatment,
services and patient safety issues.
2.The hospital provides the patient with information regarding infection control measures for hand hygiene
practices, respiratory hygiene practices and contact precautions according to the patient’s condition.
The information is discussed with the patient and his or her family members on the day the patient enters
the hospital or as soon as possible (for example, within 24-48 hours). The patient’s understanding of this
information is evaluated and documented. (See also PC.02.03.01, EP 25)
Note: The information provided to the patient may be in any form of media.
Meanwhile, Safe Care Campaign’s FREE online brochure:
“A Patient’s Guide to Safe Care” continues to be one of the most popular sections of the educational website, with over one third of the visitors downloading the guide.
JANUARY 2008
Durham, N.C.: Dr. Dan Sexton of Duke Infection Control Outreach Network (DICON) recruits Victoria to appear in an educational module to be shown to caregivers around the country, focusing on the importance of not only how they deliver care, but also the fuller magnitude of what it ultimately means to their patients and their families.
March, 2008
New Orleans, Louisiana:
Victoria presents to 170 CEOs at HCA Health Care’s 2008 CEO Summit. Their response is overwhelming and as a consequence of what she says, she is invited to speak in the U.K. by London CEO Keith Hague, a man passionate to prevent infections within his hospitals.
JANUARY 2008
Greensboro, Georgia: St. Francis Hospital in Columbus wins the 2007 Josh Nahum Special Achievement Award for Infection Prevention and Control, a statewide challenge to hospitals throughout Georgia. The hospital places first for its project: ‘Coronary Artery Bypass Surgical Site Infection Prevention.’ The award sponsors, Kimberly-Clark Health Care, the Georgia Hospital Association’s PHA (Georgia Partnership for Health and Accountability) and SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN created it to encourage, celebrate and publicly reward teams of frontline caregivers, who, as they achieved infection prevention success, would share details of how they did it. This process of sharing of details would serve to further prosper better patient outcomes, ultimately benefitting individual patients as other frontline teams who hear the elements of success now incorporate them into their own hospitals repertoire of care.
Milwaukee, WI: Aurora Health Care, BD and Safe Care Campaign partner to produce a hospital employee orientation video with sole emphasis on infection prevention and how each individual caregiver may indeed hold the key to saving a patient’s life.
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2007
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) works on legislation to improve the prevention, detection and treatment of community and health care-associated infections - particularly antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as MRSA. The initiative, the Community and Health Care Associated Infections Reduction (CHAIR) Act of 2007, follows several confirmed cases of MRSA infections involving students in the Chicago area. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). In November, a representative from Senator Obama’s office requested SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN’s help offering suggestions pertinent to infection prevention to strengthen this legislation as they attempt to move forward.
OCTOBER 2007
Washington, D.C.: As part of APIC’s International Infection Prevention Week, Victoria is honored to address a gathering of health care providers, administrators, caregivers and other staffers. Her speech as well as others are carried by satellite to hundred of hospitals throughout the country.
It is during this time that co-speakers, Drs. Jon Lloyd and Jonathan Perlin make an indelible mark on Victoria as she realizes they all 3 share a common brand of passion for much-needed change in American delivery of care.
Dr. Lloyd speaks about a creative method of inherently local infection prevention that not only bonds the care team to each other but ultimately provides patients with the better expected outcomes they deserve. This care method is a process of teamwork and discovery called the POSITIVE DEVIANCE APPROACH.
Victoria is especially interested in approaches that
blend traditional, proven practices with new ideas
and technologies, believing that “if something is not
working, (specially in instances of infection
prevention) for goodness sake, let’s try something
else that might make sense. Most of the time,
recovery from illness is not a “do over” proposition so
it’s imperative that we get it right the first time.”
Dr. Jon Perlin, HCA’s Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Quality, catches her attention when he tells her that the extra investment of prevention to keep his patients at HCA safe is well worth it.
His policy to go the extra mile for prevention is about
more than patient safety. Dr, Perlin calls it a “rational
business decision.” He continues, saying that Senior
leadership’s involvement is always key to success of
HCA’s infection prevention programs, one of which is
their MRSA Toolbox. Like Emory’s John Fox, Jon Perlin
knows that real commitment to patient safety involves
everyone.
The CDC says that if everyone who touches a patient would simply wash or sanitize their hands prior to and after touching them - perhaps up to 40% of the infections would not occur.
Towards the end of 2007,
SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN’S
attempt to bring attention
to the pressing issue of health
care infections was working.
With more than 500,000 hits to
the website and coverage on
major networks as well as local
TV and radio stations with
features and interviews in magazines, it seemed as if infection prevention was on the lips of everyone. The health care industry was more proactive, those in high places were listening to offered dialogue focusing on every potential solution and the American public was just beginning to learn how to participate in their own safe care.
Faisal Masud, MD, FCCP
Medical Director, Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit Methodist DeBakery Heart Center, Houston, Texas.
Within a national tour format, Victoria speaks to hospitals throughout the country in conjunction with Dr. Faisal Masud in an educational program created by Teleflex Medical and developed by clinical specialists who have made the commitment to reduce the risk of central line-associated infections.
This initiative examines a series of topics and best practices that can help reduce the risk of catheter-related blood stream infections.
MARCH - AUGUST 2007
Atlanta, Georgia: Throughout the Spring and Summer, SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN continues to make progress in their mission of safer care.
The FREE, online GUIDE to PREVENTING HEALTH CARE ACQUIRED INFECTIONS is up and running with comprehensive educational information that includes material on how to prevent Surgical Site Infections, Urinary Tract Infections, Bloodstream Infections and Ventilator Associated Pneumonia. The guide also addresses topics such as MRSA, VRE and C. difficile.
The PATIENT SAFETY ADMISSION DVD project with the CDC and APIC is well underway.
Victoria travels often as she is invited to share her positive and empowering “Change One Thing, Change Everything” message to health care systems and hospitals throughout the country.
Noel Eldridge from the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs
becomes an important partner in the culture of safest
care and works tirelessly with Victoria to ensure that the
crucial hand hygiene message is understood as well as
practiced.
Victoria continues her work with the team at the
Georgia Hospital Association with presentations,
conference calls, meetings and webinars.
In June, by invitation, the Nahums travel back to the Colorado hospitals where Josh received his care before he died. They are anxious to see what proactive measures have been added to ensure best patient safety and care.
They also attend the 2007 APIC Annual Conference in San Jose, CA, where they are introduced to attendees during President Denise Murphy’s opening remarks.
Armando begins work helping APIC with their new preventinfection.org website.
SEPTEMBER 2007
Chicago, IL: During the Summer, Laura Botwinick, proactive co-Director of The Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety invites Victoria to participate on their Patient and Family Safety Advisory. Victoria attends her first meeting in Chicago in September.
SEPTEMBER 2007
Atlanta, GA: Part of the culture change that is so crucial to American patient safety is a strong and committed leadership to issues like hand hygiene. Unless this top-down commitment is in place and communicated to hospital staff including physicians, hand hygiene initiatives will not be as effective as possible. Nursing staff - the historic champions of compulsive hand hygiene just cannot be expected to do it all alone. One leader of this calibre who Victoria met in her own backyard of Atlanta was Emory Health Care CEO, John Fox. During a stepped up hand hygiene initiative in order to truly deliver best, safe care to their patients, Emory’s Dr. James Steinberg contacted her to help Emory in this important project. John Fox’s message to hospital staff and employees minced no words - proper hand hygiene should and would be adhered to as the basis and foundation of best care. Role-model administrators like John Fox and focused team leaders like Dr. Steinberg help make all the difference for individual patients who are seeking safe care and best outcomes.
FEBRUARY 2007
FEBRUARY 2007
Atlanta, GA: The CDC and Safe Care Campaign invite APIC to join them as part of this landmark project to educate the public by firmly incorporating proper hand hygiene practices and appropriate expectations into the HOSPITAL ADMISSION process. The DVD would then be shown to patients upon admission or, if they are too ill to watch it, to their loved ones or advocates. Kimberly-Clark Health Care sees the inherent importance of the project and generously provides a grant to produce the content as well as give it to American hospitals at no charge.
Boston, MA: During a World Health Organization meeting, Dr. Didier Pittet reads Victoria’s “Mother’s Letter to a Hospital CEO” that describes the full scope of what patient death from a health care acquired infection encompasses and was so much in agreement of what it implied that he suggests it be included as part of a scientific journal so that the enormity of the impact of such an incidence could begin to be truly understood by the medical community.
APRIL 2007
Upon hearing of the Nahum’s story, Dr. Leape emails Victoria this humble, sobering and yet encouraging letter:
“Dear Ms. Nahum,
Your story is heart-wrenching, and I apologize for my colleagues and for our system having failed your son. Sadly, it is not unique. Far too many share your experience and your grief. Hand hygiene, in particular, seems like such a simple thing to do. Our failure to doit speaks volumes about the lack of accountability in our system, at every level. One might ask, for example, why people who refuse are allowed to continue working at a hospital. Short of that no tolerance policy, which I favor, many practices have been tried, some with considerable success at increasing compliance. Improving hand hygiene is a major current effort of the newly-formed World Alliance for Patient Safety, a division of WHO. Keep at it! You can make a difference. Hospitals will only change when they have to change, and it is people like you who give them that message.
-Lucian Leape”
According to Victoria, in her mind, this was at the turning point of where the SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN was headed. Because of this letter, she now truly believed with all her heart what she she had hoped all along - that what we all do does indeed make a difference!
This juncture is where her “Change one thing, change everything” mantra became her greatest path of opportunity for behavior change in the American health care culture. With her family’s story she would boldly empower and encourage frontline caregivers; reminding them of their potential impact on life itself and the importance of their individual roles within the noble service of delivering safe patient care.
Yonkers, New York: One of the people Victoria contacted early on was Consumer’s Union, the proactive not-for-profit arm of Consumer Reports. Their
Director, Lisa McGiffert was
instrumental in helping her decide that
a focus on proper HAND HYGIENE
within the American health care
environment would be one of the
greatest keys to making an impact on
patient outcomes.
This was in sync with information from the CDC who had theorized that if caregivers would only wash or sanitize their hands prior to, as well as AFTER touching a patient or objects in the room, they could prevent between 30 and 40% of the 1.7 million health care acquired infections and over 99,000 deaths annually occurring in the United States. This was all Victoria needed to hear. She now began in earnest, to educate the public on appropriate hand hygiene and went to work with her husband, Armando to create a FREE, ONLINE GUIDE to PREVENTING HEALTH CARE ACQUIRED INFECTIONS. Within the educational website, a major focus was on the importance of hand hygiene as a basis of and foundation of good, clean, SAFE CARE.
“For me, the real story here is the nurses. Lest we forget, all patients who become well again do so at the attentive hand of a caregiver.” - Victoria Nahum
FEBRUARY 2007
FEBRUARY 2007
FEBRUARY 2007
FEBRUARY 2007
Washington, D.C.: Victoria contacts the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and shares the story of her family and their experience with health care infections. APIC leaders are profoundly impacted by what they hear and are moved to invite Victoria to represent the patient and family perspective at their upcoming National Infection Prevention Week to be held in October in D.C. Denise Graham, Kathy Warye and Denise Murphy are key in helping to introduce the Nahums and the campaign to the infection professional population at large.
Chicago, IL: Susan E. Sheridan, MIM, MBA, CAPS Co-founder and President, becomes involved in patient safety after her family experienced two serious medical system failures. Upon meeting, Sue becomes a mentor to Victoria, helping her to understand how the health care system works and advising her as to how she can make the most impact for patients and their families. To Victoria, she is an impassioned angel with a vision and a high purpose, unafraid to open her mouth or tell the truth even when it may be politically incorrect or unpleasant.
Atlanta, GA: Victoria’s husband Armando is in the throes of grief. One morning, a week after Josh’s death, she sits down and begins to write a letter to a hospital CEO. Four months later, she returns to the beginnings of that letter and finishes it. When it is complete, it truly communicates the comprehensive impact that medical errors create and describes the reality of what is left behind. In the end, it has become a symbol; a powerful and unforgettable plea for health care to go the extra mile to assure best practices and patient safety.
Las Vegas, Nevada: As Victoria attempts to research the problem of HAIs at an Atlanta’s Barnes & Noble, she notices that their restrooms have hand sanitizers made by Kimberly-Clark and supposes that they could be a potential partner in her mission to promote proper hand hygiene in a health care environment. She contacts and meets them. Later they invite her to speak at their annual conference in Las Vegas where, on the plane ride back, she watches the FAA’s mandatory airline passenger safety video, wondering if this same type of safety education, except written with a health care focus, could also be made available to show to patients and/or their families upon official admission to a hospital. She mentions her concern to the CDC and they say, “Yes, we agree: would you like to produce it with us?” The HAND HYGIENE SAVES LIVES DVD is created.
JANUARY 2007
JANUARY 2007
FEBRUARY 2007
FEBRUARY 2007
Philadelphia, PA: Victoria continues to look to the experts for a clear path to help prevent these infections. She hears Dr. David Nash, Chairman of Health Policy at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, an outspoken and respected infection prevention expert speaking passionately about these infections on NPR and calls him. He introduces her to Dr. Don Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Cambridge, MA: On January 29th, 2007, Victoria speaks with Dr. Don Berwick, President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement about what happened to her family. They talk about the problem of HAIs and what her campaign can do to help prevent the infections from occurring. Dr. Berwick gives Victoria what turns out to be the best advice she’s ever received since beginning the campaign.
Washington, D.C.: Dr. Berwick is interviewed by Katie Couric on the issue of patient safety in the United States. During the interview she asks if he ever hears stories from families whose loved ones have been impacted and he answers, “All the time.” He gives segment producers Victoria’s name and, along with Josie King, CBS NEWS uses Josh’s story as an example of medical error within the American health care environment.
Atlanta, GA.: Being citizens of Atlanta, Victoria and Armando feel is important to contribute right where they live and so they contact the Georgia Hospital Association where Joe Parker, Vi Naylor and Kathy McGowan embrace the campaign and invite Victoria to meet Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and speak to state legislators during an upcoming planned luncheon at the Georgia state capital.
JANUARY 2007
Hilton Head, S.C.: After Josh’s death, Victoria cannot rest until she understands what is happening to her family. Now, with 3 members sickened from health care infections in 10 months’ time, she looks for answers everywhere. Upon discovering an online article about infection expert, Dr. William Jarvis, she seeks him out. On December 9th, he graciously spends 2 hours educating Victoria on the crisis surrounding what he calls “the endemic.”
DECEMBER 2006
Atlanta, GA: On December 12th, Victoria and Armando meet with the staff members of the CDC’s Division of Health Care Quality Promotion. Present were Drs. Denise Cardo, Dr. John Jernigan, Dr. Mike Bell, Dr. Cliff McDonald, Dr. Arjun Srinivasan as well as Jennifer Morcone. They are anxious to understand why so many people are dying from infections they are catching from their medical care and how the infections can be better prevented. The CDC staff plans a usual one hour meeting but instead, ends up staying for 3 hours, speaking at length about health care acquired infections, the tragic human toll and the best way that the Nahums might make the most impact to prevent infections in the American health care environment.
DECEMBER 2006
Atlanta, GA: After acquainting themselves with the widespread problem of infections, meeting with respected infection experts and considering the brutal reality of their own personal experience with HAIs, the Nahums decide that the status quo is utterly unacceptable. Victoria and Armando Nahum establish the SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN, a humanitarian organization formed to not only educate the public about prevention, but to work in tandem with American hospitals and frontline caregivers in hopes of bringing about better expected outcomes and a more evolved culture of true global patient safety.
3 family members infected by their medical care in 3 different hospitals in 3 different states in 10 months time begins the following chain of events that led Victoria and Armando Nahum to establish the humanitarian organization: SAFE CARE CAMPAIGN.
NOVEMBER 2005
2000 to MARCH 2006
SEPTEMBER 2006
OCTOBER 2006
Rochester, NY: Quint Nahum acquires bacterial pneumonia after being treated for, and surviving a heart attack. His physician prescribes antibiotics and over the next few weeks he recovers completely.
Atlanta, GA: Over a course of 6 years, Victoria nahum and her husband Armando are baffled as Victoria’s health slowly but steadily declines. She is plagued by a mysterious illness with a myriad of seemingly unrelated symptoms. In March 2006, breast explant surgery reveals the cause of her illness: staph biofilm on the surface of her saline implant.
Longmont, CO: 6 months later, on Labor Day weekend, the Nahum’s son, Josh Nahum is injured in a skydiving accident, breaking his leg and fracturing his skull. After weeks in ICU, he is recovering so well, he is moved to a physical rehab facility so that he may continue his progress. But suddenly, his doctors discover an infection (the 3rd one he has acquired during his medical care). This time it is enterobacter erogenous and is in his cerebro-spinal fluid, causing so much pressure on his brain that it pushes part of it into his spinal column, damaging his spinal cord and making him a permanent ventilator-dependent quadriplegic. His family and care staff are devastated.
Boulder, CO: After all of his real progress and weeks of promising recovery, Joshua Nahum dies on October 22, 2006. Most tragically, he does not die from injuries stemming from his original accident; unbelievably, he dies from infections he acquires from his medical care.
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