"Albany Health Campus Emergency Dept."

I attended the ED  at Albany Health Campus with my child in the early hours of the morning. They had severe pain in their left side and nausea and vomiting after a fall playing football the previous afternoon. The staff, seeing my child's distress, quickly took them through to be assessed whilst I completed their paperwork/details. Two Doctors quickly went to work with a hands-on assessment, taking history and performing an ultrasound and other tests, before taking my child for an urgent CT scan.

The hero in this story, however, is nurse Julia. She was professional and kind, answered my many questions and provided feedback, it was comforting to have her with us. After the attending Doctors (who were both also great and provided a running commentary on what was happening) had consulted with the on-call Surgeon, it was decided to fly my child on RFDS to the Major Trauma Unit at another hospital.

As it turned out there were no RFDS planes available and we would have to wait a few hours. The Doctors were apologetic for this (over which they had no control) and whilst waiting, cross-matched blood, inserted lines and other preparatory interventions, all the while keeping my child as comfortable as possible in the HDU.

This is really to say thank you to the whole ED team involved in my child's care throughout that night, for managing a potentially life-threatening injury and in spite of this, making my child and I feel safe and confident in the care and interventions being administered.

Also to the St John Ambulance Paramedics and RDFS team a grateful thank you. My child is now home after 10 days on the State Major Trauma Unit at another hospital.