Friend of victim becomes MRSA lawyer
"Had Elizabeth been screened she may be here."
The family and friends of MRSA victims are sometimes galvanized to action by the death of a loved one. One of them is Tara Hopper, who became a lawyer and MRSA activist after she watched her best friend Elizabeth Ann Reilly fall to the bacterial infection in the prime of her short life.
"Elizabeth was only 33 years old," Hopper says. "She was a young woman who was a very loyal friend and loved to write poetry. She was very caring. Although she had fibromyalgia and diabetes she led a very vibrant, full life."
On June 26, 2007, Reilly found what she thought was a 'spider bite' on her leg. Though that is a common false assumption about a simmering MRSA skin infection, the diagnosis was apparently not made when she presented at a Florida hospital.
"They sent her home a few days later without any antibiotic for staph infections, which it turned out it was," Hopper says. "Had Elizabeth been screened she may be here on Earth today."
Reilly was discharged from the hospital on July 1, but was back a few weeks later with symptoms of a worsening MRSA infection. "Because of her weak immune system she would not ever get rid of it," Hopper said. "Her infectious disease doctor told her they could only help her monitor it. She was on a daily dose of vancomycin which made her vomit. [She was] very sick every single day of her life."
Reilly died April 25, 2008. "Her friends and family all miss her and love her," Hopper says. "I got into law school actually a week after she passed."
After writing her law paper on statuary reform for MRSA, Hopper is advocating that her home state of Florida pass a MRSA screening law similar to the one in Illinois. Another life touched by MRSA, inspired to action and advocacy by the memory of her friend Reilly, who amid her illness wrote the following poem about her daily struggles with MRSA:
Move your leg!
Get out of bed, feel the pain ignore it and smile.
Pain means you're alive.
Nonsense! I'm sick of pain, sick of pills...
I have my proof of youth and energy is it just a dream?
No. Just pictures.
I can't handle another blow. Not another one.
Just one break, I pray.
The family and friends of MRSA victims are sometimes galvanized to action by the death of a loved one. One of them is Tara Hopper, who became a lawyer and MRSA activist after she watched her best friend Elizabeth Ann Reilly fall to the bacterial infection in the prime of her short life.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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