"My teenager's experience at the Emergency Department"

I took my teenage child to Sutherland Emergency at night recently as they were very unwell with vomiting, high fever, difficulty breathing and blurred vision. The telephone nursing service advised us to take them to hospital.

When we arrived I advised Admissions that my child had trouble breathing. Our details were taken and we were given a vomit bag but no one assessed my child's breathing problems. My child was seen 30 minutes later by a Triage Nurse. They assessed that my child had a very high fever and was likely badly dehydrated explaining the shakes and blurred vision. We were asked to wait in corridor with plastic chairs and a TV mounted on the wall. The plastic chairs were curved so it was not even possible for my teenage child to lie down.

We waited for 4-5 hours with no one attending to them. I felt that nurses and doctors appeared to avoid eye contact. At two points I approached a nurse to ask how much longer the wait would be. I was told we were next. 2 hours later, I really doubted that we were next. The "express" area where we waited did not appear busy. There were available beds and staff did not seem to be rushing around seeming to have time to talk about social events. We would have really appreciated someone taking 5 minutes just to acknowledge that we were there, offer my child another vomit bag at least, and just express apologies that there was a long wait due to other more critical emergencies or whatever the cause of the delay was. No one approached us, we felt completely ignored, powerless and neglected. 

After three hours, my child was agitated and wanting to leave. Not a good option as they were still very sick and dehydrated and the only place to get a drip is at the hospital!

Luckily at that moment they was seen by a doctor. I would very much like to praise Dr Jemma and the nurse who also took care of my teenage child after they were seen by the doctor and given a bed and drip. Both were very professional, competent, caring and thorough and very respectful towards us and towards each other which was wonderful to observe. I would very much like them to be commended for their care. 

My child was discharged in the early hours of the morning. All up, we'd been at the hospital for 6 hours completely unattended to with medical care despite my teenager continuing to vomit, shake, feel faint and have difficulty breathing, for at least 4 of those hours. 

I worry about other people who, in addition to having a physical illness, are also depressed/anxious and whether such treatment would have left them in a very desperate and possibly life-threatening mental state.

My teenage child's take-home from their experience is:

1. Avoid hospitals at all cost

2. There are some amazing, wonderful doctors (Dr Jemma) and nurses (Nurse Mai) but they're hard to find!

I hope at the least, this acknowledges the good work of Dr Jemma and Nurse Mai.