"18month old with rsv and pneumonia"

My 18th month old child got taken via ambulance After local urgent care Centre thought it was best and safest to do so.

Which it was as my child needed oxygen along the way to Frankston hospital.

My child was RSV positive and having trouble breathing. In the ED, they took their bloods- doctor said no need for an x-ray.

Later that night on the ward, a second doctor asked had my child had an x-ray already? I said no. My child was sent off the next morning to have an x-ray.

The x-ray showed that my child had pneumonia as well as having RSV. They were given antibiotics to take orally for three days. We had a two night stay, my child's numbers were always border lining needing oxygen.

Didn’t eat anything thing the whole time was refusing to eat. Their nappies where down by more then half, and they were taking very little fluids, my child did have a cannula in though.

The team thought it was best that my child keep trying to drink and eat.

The next morning, the head of nursing on the ward said would we like to try hospital in the home? I asked them what is this? The nurse explained to me that we are sleeping far away at Phillip Island and we wouldn’t get a nurse to check on us, but we would get a phone call.

More than 24hours after being home, we did receive a phone call. They asked about how our Child was, and that my child was now no longer allowed to be in the hospital in the home system.

I asked, could we please stay in the system just overnight so that if my child does get sick, that we don’t have to go back to ED again. The answer was no.

My concern about this is that I am not a doctor or a nurse, I am a parent. You have sent me home to care for my very young and sick, child as if I am a nurse, seemingly leaving me to guess whether my child is well enough or not to keep out of hospital while they are struggling to breathe.

When it comes to a breathing condition, sometimes it is hard for people that aren’t medical experts to know whether they are breathing well enough or not to keep at home, which is a significant distance from any major hospital equipped to deal with children.

We do not have machines equipped at home to check and see what their stats are. My child did present well in the ambulance and still had to have oxygen, so how is an every day person, supposed to tell the difference?

I do not think that hospital in the home can work for some people, especially when it’s far away. People who live in the country when it comes to do with airways and oxygen, I don’t think it is safe to be sent home and left to your own devices, with no emergency options on hand. I actually find this process incredibly neglectful.

We are so lucky that nothing more has happened to our child since being home, but I do not trust this system.

When people don’t have an expert on hand that can come and check to make sure that things are okay- for any patient, but especially the most vulnerable, young children struggling to breathe.

If I was ever asked for a breathing issue to go and do hospital in the home, I would say no every single time.

I was happy to use my private health insurance to cover this, which I would not do again in these circumstances.

Never, ever have I felt so pushed out of a system.

I hope you all learn from this experience, and that it doesn’t cause anyone serious harm or result in a tragedy that could be easily prevented by continuing patient care.