My child has anorexia nervosa and was in hospital for just over a week.
We arrived after lunch on the first day to emergency and landed a bed on 4A general before midnight. This is my child's 3rd admission this year.
My child is trying hard with all their strength to find strategies to help overcome this illness but hospital admissions, particularly this one, set them back.
On the day after my child was admitted, they were told that they would be moved to a POD bed on 4A eating disorder. My child expressed their concern to the medical team, with the fact that if they mix with and are exposed with other people who are loud and vocal about their anorexia and self-harm, my child slides backwards and has to start again. They would prefer to stay on 4A general ward.
The lovely nurse coordinator discussed this with the team and came back and said that the team had agreed to a "worst-case scenario" which would be that my child would be placed in a private room on the POD ward. They preferred my child in POD as the staffing was 2 to 1 patient. My child was still highly anxious about the move but had no choice.
As it turns out, my child was placed in a room with an anorexic patient that was continually talking about self-harm, counting calories and refusing food.
During this admission, I had 1 phone call from a doctor at the beginning of the admission. My child otherwise contacted me and told me they were being discharged and the time to pick them up. I had no medical information on my child's mental well being or their physical health on discharge. There was very little communication.
When I got my child home, they described the trauma of being "drugged up" with lorazepam when they became distressed or spoke up (around 4/day), not being heard by the medical team about their need of keeping away from other anorexic patients. They have self-harmed significantly which had seemingly not been noticed and they were able to hide food without anyone noticing. In my opinion, this was, of course, fueled by the girl my child shared the room with and was the one thing they were advocating for at the start of their admission.
So where do I go now? I believe my child is mentally very damaged from this admission. I have no information as to where my child lies medically due to no communication. My child is not wanting to attend school and would rather take their own life than go back to PCH. I am currently concerned that they will take their own life after the trauma of this admission.
"Trauma of hospital admission"
About: Perth Children's Hospital / Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders Department (AMED) Perth Children's Hospital Adolescent Medicine and Eating Disorders Department (AMED) Nedlands 6009
Posted by omegamn33 (as ),
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