"Treatment plan for deep laceration"

My (nearly adult) child was treated at the hospital by a visiting doctor. I don’t want to complain but want to provide feedback so it can be used as opportunity to learn from any mistakes made. 

Nearly a month ago, my child had an accident (in the river) and had a very large laceration in base of their foot. I knew it was a good one so I took them to my local hospital as it’s the closest.

There is no treating doctor there so waited for doctor to be finished at their clinic and then come to the hospital. The nurses looked after us in the meantime and did a great job. My child was in a lot of pain  and they got the right medication and my child basically slept until the doctor arrived. With the nursing I have no issues at all.

The doctor arrived and I have no issues at all with them. They weren't sure on how to treat this so they actually made a phone themselves and the decision was made to stitch the laceration.

The visiting doctor gave it a cursory clean out and then stitched it up. It was pretty big stitching job. Lot of local anaesthetic was used and my child was lots of pain. I think the doctor didn't know better and I didn't know that’s what we shouldn’t be doing.

The doctor told us to head back home and wait 10 days for the dressing change. We went home and the next day, the laceration had soaked through bandage and was hot and it was swollen and red. So I made appointment with local GP who said do not pass go and do not collect $200 – go straight to emergency.

I’m not saying that anybody did anything wrong because they didn’t know. So I want to provide feedback so they have the opportunity to learn how it should have been treated. 

I want to a regional hospital and my child was taken into surgery that night. They found gravel, plant life and took a swab that then grew river bacteria. 

The surgeon told me later that they had their finger inside my son's foot and was touching their bone. That's how deep the laceration was. 

Every one said it shouldn’t have been stitched. It should have been left open to heal and to drain.

My child is still under the care under hospital in the home and having dressing changes so it's an ongoing thing. It was serious and it was found in time and was fine, everything is fine. but it wasn't a little thing to be taken lightly.

The only other thing I was is to compliment the nurses and the doctor in this situation. I don’t have a complaint about their behaviours and how they handled it. The nurse was professional and very pleasant but I cannot think of her name. My child doesn't feel a lot of pain and to see them in this level of pain was hard. The nurse was very pleasant, caring and saying she could see my child was still in pain and would try to work out what other medication she could give to manage the pain. She was making sure my child was okay, and checking on us while we were waiting for the doctor. 

We didn't realise how bad it was and were just happy my child had been stitched up. I know now stitching wasn't the right treatment plan. I don't want to make a complaint but just let you know what happened to give the opportunity to learn from it.