I took my toddler child to emergency as they had fallen over and split open their head. We arrived at the hospital and left about 5 hours later, my eldest child (early teens) had to sit in the car because they weren’t allowed in with us and didn't want to do a rat test to sit in the waiting room.
My child had a wound around 1cm to 1.5cm in length and more than 5mm deep next to their eye and the bridge of their nose, the staff member who we saw did not really seem to have a clue on how to deal with a child and I felt put them through quite a bit of trauma. Even when I was saying the dressings were not sticking, I recall they continued to just keep sticking more and more over the top. 9 sterristrips, 1 elastoplast strip, 2 big bandaid dressings, 3 pieces of tape and a bandage to hold it all in place, they stuck it all to my child’s hair and eyelids. I recall the staff member did not even attempt to contact the paediatric surgeon or any paediatric doctor to look at my child (which the last staff who saw my child over a year ago when they did a similar thing above their eye did, as it was a child with a head injury). It seemed the staff member ignored all the nurses and myself and was not organised to do anything before they made me hold my child down to try to close the wound which I will state now it was not closed at all even after they put all the above mentioned dressings on. The nurses in this situation were the best and I believe they could see how stressed the staff member was making my child, so they worked with me to try and get a good outcome but unfortunately that did not happen as the staff member would not listen to them. I believe that glueing my child’s wound shut would have been the quickest and best option but the staff member refused to do it because the glue may have stained my child’s skin.
After speaking with my local clinic nurse later that day they told me to take off the dressings and replace it with a wet gauze and take them to the clinic first thing in the morning to get it closed up. Our local clinic is great and if it was open afterhours I wouldn't even bother going to the hospital unless it was absolutely necessary. I have taken pictures of my child and all the dressings the staff member put on them and the proof it wasn't even closed.
"Emergency department's service"
About: Kalgoorlie Health Campus / Emergency Department Kalgoorlie Health Campus Emergency Department Kalgoorlie 6430
Posted by cafebg33 (as ),
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