Fw: [Dysphagia] Irene's response to Suzanne

[bjm at francomm.com (Barbara Morrison)]

> Irene,
>
> Please do NOT make generalizations about Speech Pathologists.
> You are participating in a listserve which is geared towards SLPs.
> You refer to SLPs in the below comments as "these same people" and
> "what are they thinking". This is disrespectful and offensive. Irene, are
> you a Speech Pathologist? Have you worked in acute care? Have you
> had to make decisions regarding a patient's PO intake??? We do NOT take
> these decisions lightly. AND the whole idea of swallowing evaluations
> (whether it be bedside or a video) is to
> test various food and liquid consistencies to see what a patient CAN
> tolerate.
> Of course there IS a risk of aspiration, that is why the patient was
> referred to us
> in the first place. AND we know that an evaluation situation is just a
> moment
> in time and it does not resemble real life. However, we need the
evaluation
> information to make decisions about the patient's PO intake and risk
> of aspiration.
> I hope that you understand where I am coming from and I am sure that I
> am not the only SLP who feels this way about your comments. In the future,
> if you don't have anything nice and constructive to say, keep it to
> yourself. We
> do not need people on this listserve who are going to belittle what SLPs
do.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Irene Campbell-Taylor" <eripley@yahoo.com>
> To: <dysphagia@b9.com>
> Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 2:17 PM
> Subject: [Dysphagia] Response to Suzanne
>
>
>
> >   You also say, "I have to wonder why food is being used in a situation
in
> which one might well expect aspiration to occur."  Is this because of a
> potential risk to someone whose immune system is compromised or who has
poor
> health of the lungs (i.e. BPD in children)?   Would you see any risk to
the
> food + barium mixture if the individual's health was good and there
weren't
> specific lung or immune system problems?
>
>
> >   *** My point here is that SLPs in general have a inappropriate
response
> to the issue of aspiration and I see so many scores of recommendations
that
> patients be NPO because of a hint of a risk of aspiration that it drives
me
> insane. If these same people - as they largely are- give food in a
situation
> in which it may be aspirated - what are they thinking? Also, I have seen
> food sitting around the x-ray department for hours before being used
> gathering every noxious germ that only hospitals can provide. Infection
> control officers would go mad. Barium alone is innocuous to the lungs.
Food
> that is, even under the best of circumstances, filled with bacteria, is
not.
> Also, the "bits" in mashed or ground foods can block the alveoli,
especially
> in small childen and potentially cause great harm. I wonder how many of
the
> pneumonias that occur following the VFSS were caused by the VFSS.
> >   Irene.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Dr I Campbell-Taylor
> > Clinical Neuroscientist
> > Exclusive Distributor:
> > www.interactivetherapy.com
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> >
>