Sick Baby

LegacyUser

I need somewhere to vent and maybe see what other parents think!
Mods note I am NOT looking for medical advice!!

On Sunday evening last Sept 11th our baby (9months) had a temperature of 39.8 given capol & nurofen to little affect brought to the GP Monday morning and following examination could find no cause so sent to A&E for tests
In A&E they took a urine sample which showed a possible UTI but as the sample was too small to be definite of the diagnosis they took a second sample which showed no UTI and the doctor on duty prescribed Distaclor (antibiotic) for a possible diagnosis of tonsillitis (strong family history of tonsillitis both parents and siblings had tonsillectomies) wanted to admit baby to hospital parents decline for several reasons:
1) The hospital has an outbreak of Winter Vomitting bug at present
2) Baby is very tactile would freak out totally being confined to bed with an IV
3) Availability of 24 hour paediatric nurse at home to give 1 on 1 nursing
4) Having being diagnosed with tonsillitis and having experience of same expected marked improvement with antibiotic

Monday-Thursday no change in baby's condition pretty much constant high temperatures of between 38 and 39.9 calpol & nurofen given with little affect
Return to GP on Thursday to be checked out
Chest (Heart & lungs) fine
Throat shows no sign of infection
Ears are clear
GP says it may be viral and to finish antibiotic and return Monday (today)

Thursday night/Friday morning temp spikes at 41.4
Return to GP
GP rings Lab in hospital for precise results of urine tests from previous Monday and is informed that urine sample was sent off for a culture and confirmed diagnosis of UTI, the results show that bacteria present is resistant to the usual antibiotics and after speaking to the microbiologist we are referred to A&E again

Back in hospital temp at 39.7, paralink suppository given, temp reduces for 2 hours approx, Blood tests done (baby is hysterical by the time this is finished as they have difficulty getting blood from her and end up squeezing it out of her )
Doctors want to admit to pediatric unit to commence IV antibiotics for the UTI parents decline (per reasons above) but agree to review situation after the weekend
New antibiotic prescribed and given over the weekend this antibiotic causes stomach cramps & diarrhea and is recommended for use only for severe UTI's
Temperature has ceased to spike though occassional temps of circa 38-38.9 are observed
General demeanour has improved (crawling & occassional smiles as opposed to being completely listless all last week)

Monday morning (today) recieve phone call from consultant pediatrician in the hospital
(the one who was too busy to see the child on Friday)
Blood tests are back
She does NOT have a UTI!!
They don't know what she does have!
Gives us a quick run through of blood results over the phone
He says she has to complete the full 10 day course of current antibiotic as he will not contradict another doctor's prescribing!

I ring the lab myself to request that they fax her blood results to my GP and myself (for my records) apparently they do not give results to patients families because of patient confidentiality!! And they were too busy to fax to the GP they then gave me the results over the phone!

20 minutes after getting off the phone with the lab the pediatrician rings again to request that we attend the hospital for him to review the baby on Thursday

I am bringing baby back to GP this afternoon for review

I am SOOOOO annoyed

Any thoughts??

greengirl31

Op,

First of all, let me say how sorry I am to hear that your little girl is ill... It's awful when they're so sick and the poor little mites can't tell you where hurts.

When my little girl was about the same age she ended up in hospital with a soaring temp. Now it doesn't seem to have been as serious as your little one but all the same I was terrified and the sight oh her with little drips and needles sticking out of her broke my heart !!! And while I understand your reasons for not wanting her to stay in hospital perhaps you should think about it. It's been over a week since your daughter began to feel unwell and she's not significantly better now. Hospitals don't want to admit children lightly and especially while there's an outbreak of the WVB so they don't want to keep her in just for the sake of it. Also, you'll be able to stay with her and regardless of where she is at the moment I'd imagine she'll be freaking out to some degree. You say there's a paediatric nurse at home - what does He/she have to say about the situation - are they happy to have your daughter at home or do they think a hospital stay is unnecessary. There seems to be alot of confusion over results/diagnosis too which I would presume is very frustrating but I'd say if you were actually in the hospital these issues would be cleared up quicker rather than going through GP's/ consultants / Labs etc.
I know the health service gets alot of criticism, alot of which is deserved but I also know that from my experience, once you're in the system, the care given is second to none. In this instance, I'd say bring your little girl in, Let them admit her for a couple of day's to get a proper diagnosis and treatment plan rather than going backwards and forwards, getting nowhere and your little girl still not getting better.

Good luck and I hope that you're little girl is on the mend soon

cynder

tonsillitis both parents and siblings had tonsillectomies) wanted to admit baby to hospital parents decline for several reasons:
1) The hospital has an outbreak of Winter Vomiting bug at present
2) Baby is very tactile would freak out totally being confined to bed with an IV
3) Availability of 24 hour paediatric nurse at home to give 1 on 1 nursing
4) Having being diagnosed with tonsillitis and having experience of same expected marked improvement with antibiotic


to me these are not good enough reasons not to admit child to hospital, i dont know how many kids should have been hositalliesd and were not and later suffered really bad health, the docs can only do so many test in A & E, when a child is admitted they can really start the tests and find out the cause.

Having been in hospital a number of times with my lady as she is a diabetic, i will always say its better to be safe than sorry. That means admiting the child to hospital....

I totally agree with greengirl31.


Hope your little one gets well soon....

username123

worried&annoyed wrote: »

Any thoughts??

You were advised twice to admit the child to hospital where there would have been a consultant doctor on call to handle sudden spikes in temp, further investigation and not have messing around with faxes to GPs etc...

I really think you should have followed the advice given by the hospital and admitted the child. When a child is on site they are far more proactive about getting lab results back, making proper diagnosis and doing full battery of tests that they dont do in A&E.

Messing around too and from a GP is not going to help - a GP is limited in what they can diagnose/treat - whereas a hospital is not.

I hope your child gets better soon but I think you have made the wrong decision re the hospital and not in the best interests of the childs physical health. The reasons you have listed are not strong enough not to admit a sick child to hospital.

Moonbeam

"3) Availability of 24 hour paediatric nurse at home to give 1 on 1 nursing"
Is that you? or did you get someone in?
Have you spoken to them about the situation?

If it was my child I most definitely would have had them admitted.

Daisy M

I too am sorry your little one is not well and I do know how distressing this is for you. But to be honest if the hospital suggested admitting my child then I would have as I know that they will not suggest doing so unless they deem it necessary. There is no way on a second occasion that I would have refused to have her admitted. You do need to accept some blame here and realise that it is possible you would have had a correct diagnosis by now and your little one may be fully recovered. Having said that you may have never have received a proper diagnosis if nothing showed up in any tests, this sometimes happens. I dont mean to be critical of you but a skyhigh temp like that can be dangerous especially for a little one and I would be of the mindset that if she took a turn for the worst at least there would have been no delay in receiving medical treatment. I have been in the situation where I had a very lively toddler attached to a drip and while it was hard to see him upset I knew it was for his own good and had to help him make the best of it.

LegacyUser

Hi all,
OP here again
I should clarify that baby is doing great today, no temperature and she is back to her smiley chatty self walking around pulling at everything & generally back to what she was 2 weeks ago

In answer to Moonbeam both my mother (was) & 2 sisters are paediatric nurses and both agreed with my decision
It seemed crazy to admit a child to a hospital where there was a rampant infection for the sake of a simple case of tonsillitis or a UTI
Even given the high temperature spikes we experienced with her last week weighing the risk versus the benefits I felt that home nursing would be more beneficial and would have less of a negative (traumatic) impact
Because she was held down to get the bloods drawn last Friday she now freaks every time we have to lie her down to change a nappy & she had nightmares Fri & Sat night where she woke up sobbing, I thought (and still do think) that if we were able to handle the temperature spikes at home that with the correct medication her condition would have improved enough to not require admission to the hospital where she would have lost the plot entirely

I was at the GP this afternoon and she agrees that my little lady is on the mend thank God so hopefully things will continue as they are and she will be fine

I have to say I don't have alot of faith in this particular hospital anyway and this episode has not helped
I know of one family member that was admitted for a minor operation & left with a more serious disease that required serious medical interventions and another case of a complete misdiagnosis that could have been disastrous were it not for a second opinion that was sought through the after hours doctor on call service in town

What frustrates me in this case is that we still have no definitive diagnosis for what was actually wrong with baby last week
2 different doctors gave 2 different opinions and prescribed broad spectrum antibiotics to cure whatever it was that was wrong i mean a doctor diagnosing over the phone could have done as much!
I don't think that subjecting a 9 month old baby to a "battery of tests" should be the first option
If she had still been sick this morning I would have had to admit her to the hospital and I would have done so but thankfully it is not now necessary

I do acknowledge that if she had been admitted this day last week that we would probably be home & dry by now but equally we could be facing into weeks of the Winter Vomiting bug running rampant through the household which is not really an attractive option as my mum is immuno compromised

lynski

I am going to disagree with the other posters. You know your baby.
My last 2 experiences with Irish hospitals would lead me to be very slow to admit anyone to one. I disagree that people are admitted only if they need to be, they are often admitted for other reasons. Waiting for tests or consultants being one. to speed up access to tests or consultants being another
hopefully your little one is ok and you never have to face that again.

lolli

If a hospital wants to admit a child then they think there is a viable reason for this. You are lucky that you have nurses near by.

My daughter was admitted to hospital at 3 weeks old with a high temperature and we thought it was probably just a little UTI. They did a few tests in A&E and couldnt find out what was wrong so they decided to admit her. After many tests (3 Lumbar punctures & numerous blood tests, xrays etc) it was discovered that she had bacterial meningitis.

I know thats not your situation but for me I would never take the chance. I was like you I was annoyed at being admitted to hospital but I'm so glad I did it. The winter vomiting bug was in the hospital at the same time my daughter was admitted and she actually caught the vomiting bug while being treated for Meningitis.

What I'm trying to say is you didnt know what was wrong with your child, you were advised to stay but didn't.... what if it was just the start of something really bad like meningitis?? I'd rather stay in the hospital than take the risk.

ash23

I don't see how you can complain about the treatment you got when you went against medical advice.
They can only guess as to what the child has unless you stay and let them observe the result of the treatment they initially recommend and see if it is working and until they get the test results.

Daisy M

lolli wrote: »

If a hospital wants to admit a child then they think there is a viable reason for this. You are lucky that you have nurses near by.

My daughter was admitted to hospital at 3 weeks old with a high temperature and we thought it was probably just a little UTI. They did a few tests in A&E and couldnt find out what was wrong so they decided to admit her. After many tests (3 Lumbar punctures & numerous blood tests, xrays etc) it was discovered that she had bacterial meningitis.

I know thats not your situation but for me I would never take the chance. I was like you I was annoyed at being admitted to hospital but I'm so glad I did it. The winter vomiting bug was in the hospital at the same time my daughter was admitted and she actually caught the vomiting bug while being treated for Meningitis.

What I'm trying to say is you didnt know what was wrong with your child, you were advised to stay but didn't.... what if it was just the start of something really bad like meningitis?? I'd rather stay in the hospital than take the risk.

I hope your little one is well on the road to recovery, it must have been such a worrying time for you. All the best.

Op the reason I think you were in the wrong was you did'nt have a diagnosis for your daughter, if you had known what you were dealing with and it was treatable at home then the would have been different. Persistent high temperatures can be so dangerous for little ones. I am also immune compromised and would never take this into consideration if any of my children were reccommended to be hospitalised.
Its fustrating and worrying for you that you feel this hospitals care is inadequete do you have another alternative hospital you could attend?

Wantobe

I'm not a doctor but I agree with the OPs decision not to admit their baby- I think their reasons were valid and consciously formed with expert knowledge at their hand.

I've been there too- our first child had a very high temp at one stage and ended up taking her to A&E where we were advised to admit her. We declined because she was working herself up into an awful state anytime a doctor or nurse came near her- brought her home, kept an eagle eye on her and she was fine. Although we were advised to admit her, we were given the impression that our decision to take her home with us was not unreasonable and that we were not putting her in danger.

Hospitals can be awful places and sometimes certain patients will respond better to being at home if they don't absolutely need to be there.

Ayla

lynski wrote: »

...I disagree that people are admitted only if they need to be, they are often admitted for other reasons. Waiting for tests or consultants being one. to speed up access to tests or consultants being another.

For me, that is enough reason to admit a 9-month old baby. Prolonged temps can become dangerous, and if you don't even know what you're fighting then it's hard to determine if the prognosis is worsening. OP, I completely respect your reasons for staying out of hosp, however considering the case I personally would've taken my baby in & offered whatever consolation & comfort to her possible while the docs & nurses were doing their job. I know from experience the pain & terror faced by babes when in that situation (my first girl was in hosp for a week when she was only 15 weeks old & it was *hell*).

That said I have to kindof agree with the other posters who have said that you can't really fault the medical profession - if they haven't been given the chance to run whatever tests & observe your child for a reasonable time it's not really fair to assume they can accurately diagnose the problem. In my daughter's case they couldn't pinpoint what kind of infection she had for a few days, but since we were there we were given the highest priority for tests/scans/etc.

In any case, I'm glad it's ended well for you & your family.

ash23

worried&annoyed wrote: »

Monday morning (today) recieve phone call from consultant pediatrician in the hospital
(the one who was too busy to see the child on Friday)
Blood tests are back
She does NOT have a UTI!!
They don't know what she does have!
Gives us a quick run through of blood results over the phone
He says she has to complete the full 10 day course of current antibiotic as he will not contradict another doctor's prescribing!

Just to add, I wouldn't have thought a doctor would be able to alter a patients medication when he himself hadn't examined or seen the child. He doesn't know what infection she has so he isn't really in a position to make a diagnosis or recommendation over the phone so I think he was right in recommending you continue with the treatment plan the doctor had given and make an appointment to see him before he is able to recommend treatment for the child.

SlimCi

Ok I'm kind of torn answering this but here goes. My son got sick at 9 months and after 8 visits to the doctor and two home doc visits I insisted they take him to hospital. He was found to have pneumonia:D. They then went on to tell me that he probably had CF and that they would just test him to confirm that!!! HE DIDN'T. I have found over the years dealing with the medical system for my mother and my son that the doctors and gp's and consultants here in Ireland have very poor investigative diagnostic skills and don't really seem interested. My son and I both ended up carrying MRSA from my mother which she picked up in hospital, which we have now gotten rid of, at my insistence! The infection control consultant couldn't understanding me wanting rid of it, as "you could pick that up anywhere again". So I can understand you not wanting him in hospital. But I think weighing it up if I was worried he was that sick I would have had him admitted rather than take any chances. Hard call though but I am glad he's feeling better. Its always such a worrying time when they are sick and so small:)

Jumbo156

O/P I have to say that I find it very hard to believe and I have to say foolish that the you refused to let your little one be admitted to hospital.
To me it borders on neglect, and to say that you are fuming that it taking too long to diagnose is really taking the biscuit...

"I don't think that subjecting a 9 month old baby to a "battery of tests" should be the first option"

What the hell are they supposed to do, ???

"If she had still been sick this morning I would have had to admit her to the hospital and I would have done so but thankfully it is not now necessary"



I have had experience in this sort of thing, if you search my posts you will see it.
Bottom line, if had taken my little fella home, like you did,he would be dead...

By the way, my sister-in-law is a pediatric nurse and she reckoned there was nothing wrong with him...

I am glad your little one is well, but I don't think you can take any credit for that.

lolli

Jumbo156 wrote: »

Bottom line, if had taken my little fella home, like you did,he would be dead...

Same here, my lil lady got meningitis at 3 weeks old and as hard as it was to see someone so tiny go through all those tests (Lumbar punctures etc) I am so god damn glad I let them do those tests.