Moms, Doctors Take Aim at MRSA, Other Superbugs

As 1 1/2-year-old Simon Sparrow lay dying in a hospital in April 2004, doctors were perplexed as to what was causing his illness.

May 15, 2012 | Source: ABC News | by C. Michael Minder, M.D.

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As 1 1/2-year-old Simon Sparrow lay dying in a hospital in April 2004, doctors were perplexed as to what was causing his illness.

“None of the health care professionals at the University of Chicago had any clue as to why he died,” Simon’s mother, Everly Macario, recalls. “From the moment he got strange symptoms to when he died was 24 hours.”

Tests following Simon’s death revealed that he’d succumbed to an overwhelming infection caused by a highly antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria known as methicilliin-resistant Staph aureus, or MRSA. Despite having a doctorate in public health from Harvard, Macario had never heard of MRSA or its potentially deadly consequences.

Since her son’s death, Macario has made it her mission to raise awareness of these deadly infections. On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Macario joined a group of concerned mothers, health care providers, farmers and chefs in a roundtable meeting to raise awareness of the growing problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria.