I presented to the Emergency Department (ED) on a few weeks ago with my infant disabled child who was floppy, irritable, their fluid intake had dropped, very sleepy and they had a very heavy urine output.
My child is known to the paediatric (paeds) ward and has a letter stating they must be seen by the paeds ward. I felt the emergency doctor wasn’t taking us seriously at all, didn’t believe our child was floppy and blamed it on their syndrome that it’s common with them (my child could sit up unassisted prior and hold their head up fine but during this, they couldn’t at all), I believe the doctor didn’t take any notice of my child's urine output and called the paediatrician on call and told them my child was just irritable, nothing else.
We then were told to stop their seizure medication and see our paeds on during the week.
That day my child was happy, floppy but their feeding had increased again so we didn’t think much of it when we saw our paeds, they still had an increased urine output.
Come the end of the week my child was extremely floppy again, fluids had dropped again and they were urinating an absurd amount, also still very irritable. I called the paediatric ward prior to coming in as I didn’t want to be fobbed off again in emergency. I believe they called our paediatrician who spoke to the one on-call and explained my child's history, 2 registrars came down to see my child. In my opinion, they didn’t take any notice of their urine output but did agree my child was very floppy but I believe they both wanted to just send us home, thankfully the paediatrician said no and to just keep my child overnight.
The next morning I felt we were treated like we were crazy but a blood test was done finally, our child had severe DKA (Diabetic ketoacidosis). I believe they wouldn’t have made it another 2-3 days they were flown to Perth that day.
It was very sad that all of the doctors we saw, I felt not one of them could pick up the most obvious diabetes/dka signs, I believe there needs to be more diabetes training at Bunbury Hospital and that the first emergency doctor who I felt didn’t even relay the correct information needs to be spoken to, another child with my child's history presenting floppy should never have been sent home to begin with and I believe the DKA would have been picked up that day before it reached severe if they had done their job.
"Lack of proper treatment and diagnosis"
About: Bunbury Hospital / Emergency Department Bunbury Hospital Emergency Department Bunbury 6230
Posted by whisperhn55 (as ),
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