My mother had quadruple bypass in the middle of June. At her 4-week checkup they discovered an area of concern at the bottom of her incision where they felt it wasn't healing properly. She was sent home and the home care nurse was instructed to pack the wound. The following week she went back to see the surgeon because the wound was looking worse - she had a surgical procedure, which included removing two of the wires and debridement, and opened up her incision about 5 inches. They cultured her wound and found psuedonomas and klepsiella. She was sent home with a wound vac and two antibiotics. 4 days later she started to run a fever, and felt a general malaise; the visiting nurse noticed a marked difference and tried getting the surgeon's office to see her that day, but they did not and it was two more days before she was seen again. At this point, 6-weeks after the initial surgery, they decided her best chance to fight the infection was to completely open her incision and remove all the wires. Immediately after the surgery the surgeon informed me of how things went and stated that the wires were not doing much to hold things together at that point, and that she had scar tissue to help stabilize the sternum, and that "later" a plastic surgeon would close the incision. During that hospital stay her wound was cultured again, and this time they detected MRSA. She was discharged this past Sunday on IV antibiotics (stayed with me to take care of the infusions) and yesterday went back in for the procedure by the plastic surgeon. He shifted her pectoral muscles to cover the sternum, and then closed the incision. He said tonight that her sternum is essentially in two pieces, with some fibrous tissue kind of keeping it in place, but that you could reach your finger thru and touch her heart. Needless to say that was somewhat of a disturbing image. He did say that if the muscle flap held, that her chances of healing without further complications was good, but that it could take a year for the sternum to completely knit back together. So, the question I and her other children have is how much risk is she in with her sternum in that condition, and how limited will she be in what she can do? The surgeon's have both been somewhat vague about this thus far.