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"Emergency department"

About: Albany Health Campus / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

I feel as if I wasn’t taken seriously from the start. I rushed to the hospital A & E after my baby had an accident and was crying so hard in pain that they passed out twice. We where told to sit in the waiting room which we sat for about an hour. We were the last of 5 to be seen which, okay my baby wasn’t crying, but I tried to explain that they’ve always had a high pain tolerance. We where taken through and waited a further half hour before a nurse asked if my baby had any panadol given, to which the nurse then gave my baby. Then finally seen a doctor who proceeded to check my baby over. The doctor touched my baby's legs than their left hand to which my baby pulled away (they are very young, for anyone who has children they didn’t want some strange person touching them). We then said it’s my baby's right arm we are concerned about as we had noticed they weren’t using it very well and couldn’t put weight on it. The doctor said that’s okay I won’t even touch it because they think my baby's left arm hurts too and they had seen my baby trying to play with both arms and that we can wait a bit in case of any concussion, but then we can go. So of course now I was confused and knew this wasn’t right so I sat my baby on the bed well knowing they were about to try crawl and wouldn’t be able to. My baby did and collapsed and then screamed so loud that they held their breath. The doctor then said I suppose while we wait we can do an X-ray! Finally we had an X-ray done and then after being there for about 3 hours at this point the doctor came in and told us my baby had fractured their wrist and needed to be plastered to keep it straight with it to heal in about 3 weeks or so... I just can’t get over the fact the doctor was going to send my baby home. Why did they not listen or take me seriously? I know my baby well enough to know something was wrong and it wouldn’t have hurt to have checked. It just goes to shows sometimes you have to push to be taken seriously! And no I am not one to complain all other times have been great experiences. I’m just angry that my baby was in pain and no one seemed to care!  

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Responses

Response from Marie Young, Quality and Service Reform project officer, Albany Health Campus, WACHS Great Southern 5 years ago
Marie Young
Quality and Service Reform project officer, Albany Health Campus,
WACHS Great Southern
Submitted on 16/01/2019 at 5:27 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 5:35 PM


Dear robinyj69,

Terribly sorry to hear of your current experience in our ED Department. It is always distressing when you have a young child in pain.

Our ED Team at all times endeavour to respect, listen and empathise with patients and family but it appears on this occasion we may not have met our standards.

We would value the opportunity to investigate this further to provide vital learnings for our service. We would appreciate you contacting us on 9892 2647 to discuss your experience to prevent this happening to another family.

Regards

Juan Clark

Operations Manager, Albany Health Campus

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