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My young child was taken to the emergency department around 6:30pm with severe abdominal pain which had been on and off for 4 days. We waited for about 4 hours to been seen by this stage was delusional and falling asleep on me exhausted from the pain. I believe we were seen by a jr dr who didn’t seem worried about my child at all. I found their bedside manner was horrendous. They asked my child to describe the pain and if it felt like a punch or a stab in reply my child said punch. The dr then said have you been stabbed before? Which my child replied no. Dr then said then how do you know it’s not a stabbing pain? Maybe you should try get stabbed for a life lesson and some street credit. In shock I gasp and they replied with sorry I should stop. I was mortified! After these comments I recall the dr proceeded to shh me when I was trying to explain what was occurring with my child and told they want my child to speak, mind you my child was falling asleep on the bed and couldn’t interact properly due to pain.

We were told to go home and take pain medicine, get an ultrasound in the morning because it seemed they had nobody to do it then and there to make sure it wasn’t my child’s appendix and to check lymphnodes. No follow up, no worry that it could be their appendix just go home and see how my child goes. Based on my experience, it makes me so sad the paediatric care at a hospital responsible for such a large area cant be more equipped for children. With no help, at the time of writing this, I am now having to look at driving to a different hospital to get answers as to why my child has this pain and get some help.