"My child's diagnosis"

My child was feeling unwell in the evening with abdominal pain. We sent them to bed with panadol and booked a dr appointment for the following day. I rang the dr in the morning and explained the immense amount of pain my child was in and asked if they could bring my child’s appointment forward. They advised me to call an ambulance and take my child to hospital. Knowing the burden of ambulances in South Australia, I elected to drive them.

My child had to walk to the ED department of WCH in Adelaide. On presentation, we were told to take a seat and my child was instructed not to eat and provided a sticker to say fasting. They were seen within approximately 30 minutes. My child had no temperature and they took a urine sample. After approximately 2 hours we were taken to a waiting bay and they were examined by a dr. The doctor said my child had a urine infection. I told the doctor my child had had several UTI's in the past and never presented like this. And raised the alarm that my child had right lower abdominal pain. The dr insisted my child had a UTI and they could eat and go home. They fed my child a sandwich and we were discharged. My child vomited through the car on our drive home. We rang the hospital and they told us this was normal. I reiterated that my child had never been this unwell or vomited with a UTI.

After a couple of hours sitting on the couch that night, my child moved to go to bed and again displayed intense abdominal pain. Unhappy with the diagnosis at WCH we presented to emergency at a different hospital. We were sent straight through, my child had a blood test performed and they were diagnosed with acute appendicitis. We were taken by ambulance back to WCH.

We were left in an emergency bay and not seen by a doctor until around 8 hours later who advised they thought my child had appendicitis but would need to wait for radiology to confirm. Approximately a couple hours later confirmed appendicitis with no free fluid. My child was schedule for emergency surgery to be in 2 hours.

After 4 hours, we had not been admitted to surgery and my child deteriorated rapidly. My child continued to vomit bile and couldn't keep down water. They were administered several pain medications so that they could be moved to the surgery floor 2 hours later. After a further 2 hours, my child finally underwent surgery. My child had a ruptured appendix with significant free fluid and abscess. They were given 1 week of IV antibiotics and had to remain on the ward. My child was discharged after 1 week and continued with oral antibiotics. I raised the issue with the consultant on their ward rounds the first morning after my child’s surgery and I recall they agreed my child should never have been sent home and had they had earlier surgery their appendix would not have ruptured.

Once in the ward my child was well looked after and they did recover with no further complications.