Was Emergency room necessary? - Page 2

[AuntNi]

I agree that you were right and that mean nurse was wrong. I would take any child who's "screaming in agony" to the ER. I hope he feels better right away!

[seeking_peace]

You were totally right. You have to trust those mommy instincts.

When my oldest was 18 months she was running a 105 fever, and the nurse on the hotline wanted me to try giving her more motrin or tylenol, or something. I was actually on my way to the hospital when she called back, so I just told her we were going in.

The staff was really great even though they didn't seem to think anything was wrong. My dd ended up having a febrile seizure while we were there and I was so glad we were in the hospital when it happened.

Trust those mommy instincts and forget that awful nurse.

[Jimibell]

my dd#1 is a screamer....so I can see how it scares you into doing something like going to the hospital
when she was just 3 she screamed like that and the more I showed concern the more she screamed, eventually she fell asleep and when she woke up she was all-smiles....
I did think of taking her to the hospital though because it was so scary to see her so hysterical....but I'm glad I didn't because I hate hospitals as a general rule (not to say they're not necessary sometimes)

so it may have been a bellyache but he got worked up and then going to the ER must have been quite scary for him, making him react even more.....as pp said, children cannot verbalize their feelings so well so fear/upset manifests itself in different ways.....

that nurse sounds evil, why do they have mean people working the ER??

you live and you learn right.....

[hottmama]

Oh, well see, my 4 yr. old screams in agony (sometimes on and off) when he stubs a toe. So I don't pay too much mind to screaming in agony anymore. Seriously, the kid is a drama queen to the core.

[Calypso Lady]

You don't need to justify to yourself why you decided to take your child to the ER.

You know your child and you decided that there was something abnormal going on with him.
His screams were different, he was scared, something was out of place.

Perhaps it was just constipation, but it could have been a bowel obstruction which can be serious.

Don't second guess yourself.

I'd rather be relieved that it was an unnecessary trip than regret for the rest of my life that I didn't make a necessary trip.

[juneweaver]

In 1947 when I was 31/2 years old my parents intuition saved my life. Iwoke up that nite screaming in pain and after my parents did everything they could think of to make me feel better, they bundled me up and drove the 11 miles to the nearest hospital where they were told that there was nothing wrong with me. So they drove back home and called our family doctor, Dr. Buckley and woke him up at 4am. He told them to take me back to the hospital and he would meet us there. After my appendix was successfully removed Dr. Buckley said it was just minutes before it would have burst. This experience (much of which I can remember) has given me the courage to follow my own intuition to do what ever it takes to advocate for my own child and now grandchild. The "mama bear" in you is alive and well!

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

You did the right thing takeing him to the a&e i know thankfully he was ok but for you knew it could have been his appendix, that nurse was way out of line :
don't beat yourself up about it hun if only my nana was more like you my dad told me when they were younger my uncle got an appendisitus (sp) and my nana never took him to the hospital cos she was too busy getting drunk, his appendix burst he could have died.
your a great mama and you did what you thought was right for your ds, its better to be safe than sorry

[mama2mygirl]

I think you did the right thing. The nurse was a complete jerk and you should file a complaint.

[becoming]

I would have taken him to the ER. I think you did the right thing. And shame on that nurse for being so rude.

[lindberg99]

You know, I've only gone to the ER twice with kids but each time I felt kind of dumb about it after and wished I hadn't gone.

But we're not medical people so we don't know if they need to be seen or not. In fact, I remember one time I took my 18 mon DD to urgent care because she was really sick and we were visiting MIL in another state. The doctor there did a chest x-ray and said she had pneumonia and told us to take her to the ER and they might have to keep her at the hospital overnight. So we went to the ER and the doctor there looked at the X-rays without comment, said she had ear infections and gave her some antibiotics and sent us home after like 30 min. So even medical doctors aren't right all the time about what's an emergency and what's not. And if they're not, how can we expect to be?

So don't feel bad about it. And I think I would write a letter to the hospital about that rude nurse. She shouldn't have said that to anyone, whether they were 3 or 83. Do you remember her name?

[pfamilygal]

Don't feel bad. I am an ER nurse and took my son in a year ago. He was 5 and started hysterically screaming at night that his tummy hurt. He's not generally a whiner. After trying a hot bath and Sprite he was still screaming. I drove him to the ER, they put him in a room and then about 10 minutes later he let out a gigantic FART! He said he felt much better and was ready to go home. Sigh...

[rubelin]

Was it necessary?? maybe not, but you absolutely did what you thought was right and that's really all that matters. You know your child and you know what is normal upset and what is not.

The way I decide about ER visits is to weigh whether the problem is worse than the trip to the ER will most definitely be. Everytime we've had an ER visit, it's been very long and pretty wretched and often not much help (except for when I had a horrible ear infection and really needed drugs immediately), even at our very small hospital, so I will only take the kids for an illness if I am pretty confident that they can offer better care than we can at home (for injuries, that's a different criteria). That, and I always call our Dr's office and talk to the on-call physician, who can tell me what the ER can offer for a particular situation.

[wytchywoman]

I agree with PP's, there WAS something wrong with your DS. He puked and he was constipated and either one can cause one heck of a tummy ache. Don't feel bad, I took my older DS to the ER one time for a bad diaper rash, on a friday night. The triage nurse, thankfully , was very kind and understanding and gave me a chance to explain. I took him in because he peed in his diaper and then began to scream like a banshee, to the point I thought that someone was going to call the police on me for beating my kid or something. I didn't know what to do to help him ( I was young) and wanted to help ease his pain so I did the only thing I could think of and see a dr. THE ER was packed and the triage nurse told me that we would be waiting hours so I asked him what we could do and he gave me several good suggestions and we went home and he was fine. But the whole point of my thread is that people have taken their kids to the ER for lesser things than a screaming tummy ache, and no one deserves to be shamed by a medical "professional" because they didn't know ahead of time that it was just gas or needing to go poop. I think you did the right thing.

Namaste,

Michelle