Hospital Contamination

[Melissa-M]

My name is Melissa Mandrick I have celiac disease and I was impatient and they Contaminated my food I got celiac reoccurrence and right after I found out I got gallstones. My gallbladder was removed. Before it progressed to the point I was peeing blood. Doctor thinks I have a hernia from surgery. I get gastrol spams every week to the point I pass out. Med change. Later same place Contaminated again . My local hospital didn't believe my source of stomach spams instead check my vagina it was fine and was hurt not there but my stomach.no food for my to eat. What do I do about further hospitalazions.

[Melissa-M]

It was Penns Highlands I had to get on my knees and beg with going on 8 hours of stomach etc. spasms before I went to emergency room they said nothing was wrong I don't have celiac. 

[trents]

Did you make it clear to the food service staff at the hospital that you must have gluten free food?

[Melissa-M]

9 hours ago, trents said:

Did you make it clear to the food service staff at the hospital that you must have gluten free food?

Yes I was there before for the past 6 years and I stated my allergies during intake.

[Scott Adams]

I would communicate your gluten-free diet needs with everyone involved with your food. So the person who brings you food--ask them if your meal is gluten-free. If they don't know assume that it isn't and insist that they find out.

[Melissa-M]

2 hours ago, Scott Adams said:

I would communicate your gluten-free diet needs with everyone involved with your food. So the person who brings you food--ask them if your meal is gluten-free. If they don't know assume that it isn't and insist that they find out.

I ask before I eat everytime that it is gluten free . One of the staff members know about my celiac but put it the toaster said others patients that saw I asked if she used the toaster she said no. So I ate it. Found out later

[Melissa-M]

I went to the cafeteria management and head of building health and safety we all had a long discussion.still happened.

I had to go to the emergency room for gastrol spams that lasted over 8 hours. I was on my knees begging to be sent to the emergency room .

[trents]

Contact the hospital administration and report that incident. The administration would want to know about it in order to take appropriate action to confront the staff member in question and educate them. If this staff member were being careless with your health needs then it is likely they would repeat it and endanger others. Here in the USA you get sent a patient satisfaction survey every time you have a doctor visit or hospital stay. Here, the healthcare systems take patient satisfaction very seriously.

[trents]

If they aren't responsive, use another hospital next time. Do you have that option?

[Melissa-M]

I did they survey and that's who I talked to in the first place. No matter what hospital I go to they don't feed me properly I get a banana everyday to eat for breakfast lunch dinner and sometimes one extra small lacking in jelly and peanut butter carrots califour some beans for a month I was netrition  deprived. They tried to cover up the matter when saying anything about it

[trents]

Can you eat hard boiled eggs?

[DJFL77I]

are you sure youre not still eating gluten otherwise

youre too young to be that sick yet

[Melissa-M]

3 hours ago, DJFL77I said:

are you sure youre not still eating gluten otherwise

youre too young to be that sick yet

I use only certified gluten free meals

[DJFL77I]

Stop eating packaged food even if it's certified gluten-free

[trents]

Certified gluten-free should be okay except for the most sensitive Celiacs. There are two gluten-free certifying bodies and one of them uses a stricter standard of 10ppm while the other uses the FDA guideline of 20ppm. If you don't have a problem with what you eat outside the hospital I would think that's no where the issue is.

[DJFL77I]

How do you tell which use the 10ppm one

[trents]

This is helpful: https://www.schaer.com/en-us/a/certified-gluten-free

I was in error. There are three certifying agencies. Two use the FDA recommendation of 20 ppm while gthe GFCO standard is 5 ppm, not 10. I think the GFCO has a distinctive logo bearing the letters GFCO but I'm not positive about that.

Be careful with products that don't bear a gluten-free certified label but say stuff like, "Naturally gluten free." That would only rule out gluten used as an intentional ingredient but would not rule out cross contamination.

Edited November 26, 2020 by trents

[RMJ]

GFCO limit is 10ppm and they have two distinctive logos, the old one and a new one.

GFCO

[trents]

The article I was referencing must have it wrong then but I also quoted the article incorrectly. Having a bad day. Upon more research here is what I found:

Here is a direct copy paste from the article: 

In addition to these organizations, there are also three programs which offer certification for gluten free foods: The Gluten Intolerance Group’s Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), the Celiac Support Association (CSA), and the Allergen Control Group. Each of these groups has its own tests and standards for the levels of trace gluten they will allow. Here is a quick overview:

Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO) – This group requires tested foods to contain less than 20 ppm of gluten, though many foods contain less or even no detectable traces of gluten.

Celiac Support Association (CSA) – This group requires tested foods to contain less than 5ppm of gluten – they also require that foods be free from oats, even gluten free oats.

Allergen Control Group – This group requires tested foods to contain less than 20 ppm of gluten and it is endorsed by Beyond Celiac as the Gluten-Free Certification Program (GFCP).

But the CSA has the strictest standard it seems - 5 ppm.