"Amazing doctor saved my child’s life"

I presented to the Emergency Department (ED) of a hospital twice within a matter of 5 days as my very young child had been complaining of intense abdominal pain. They were barely able to walk, and when they did they were hunched over in pain. They had fevers (some in the high 39s), vomiting bile, loss of appetite for a week and had a bulge in their lower abdomen. They had no signs of diarrhoea, they'd been passing normal amounts of urine and normal bowel motions - even though they said it hurt to push.

Despite their two presentations at the first hospital, the only test conducted was a urine test that ruled out a UTI. Other than that, the doctors felt my child’s belly. The first time they were diagnosed with viral gastro and the second time they were diagnosed with mesenteric lymphadenitis and we were told we'd basically just have to wait it out. Read about this story here. 

2 days later, my child was still in excruciating pain. They had now begun crawling around the house because it was too painful to walk and none of their symptoms had subsided. I decided to take them to Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) because I just wasn't comfortable with both diagnoses at the first hospital.

It was here that one amazing Doctor in particular - Dr Monica in the ED at PCH, advocated for further investigation despite a senior doctor at PCH suggesting it was either constipation (gave my child an enema) or viral gastro. Dr Monica strongly suggested they take some bloods and an ultrasound - thankfully they did.

The ultrasound showed something of concern and a CT scan was done which showed a large abscess caused by a perforation in their appendix that had been leaking. Immediate IV antibiotics and emergency surgery the next day. This was lodged between their bladder and their bowel, and we were told if we had waited it out as suggested at the first hospital, it could've burst in as little as 24 hours and the result could've been absolutely tragic.