Clostridioides difficile Poses a Challenge in Rural Areas, Patient Says

Freda Pyles’ family physician in rural Pennsylvania was terrified and frustrated that he could not make her and other patients recover from their Clostridioides difficile infections. Pyles was later treated successfully in New Haven, Connecticut, through a fecal transplant.

Transcript

As a patient who had Clostridioides difficile, how did only having access to rural health care affect how you dealt with things—was that an issue?

It was, but my family physician here—he had never seen anybody as bad as me. But he had 3 patients in the nursing home, they had C diff at the same time. And he was just so frustrated with what he could do for them. And he's just over the moon happy about my success with it. He can't tell enough people about it…he saw me suffer. One day, I went in there for, I don't even remember which complaint it was. But he just came over and he hugged me, because I think he thought I was dying too. I think he watched me deteriorate so much that he was really nervous, because he knows my husband and he knows me—he's known us for many years. So he was really struggling with it too. But he was really good. I just can't say enough about how careful he was—he kept reminding me that I needed to be careful because it's contagious.