okay, wise ones. i need help. i took my son to the er last month for a high fever (104) plus vomiting and diarrhea that was into it's third day. this was right around his first birthday. he is intact (thank you mdc!) and i have never had a problem with medical personnel not honoring that choice, or even coming close to trying to retract him.
so the attending dr makes the decision that in addition to the stool sample, he wants a urine sample to test as well. he tells me he wants to straight cath him. i inform him that the baby is intact, and i will not allow them to retract him at all, and ask if that is going to present a problem. he assures me that the staff is well-versed in catherization of non-circumsized babies. enter the nurse: i repeat, very clearly, that i will not allow retraction at all. she says they see intact babies often, and she states that she is fine with doing the procedure without any type of retraction. there is a respiratory tech present who is going to assist with keeping the baby still. (read: hold him down)
like an ass, i feel a little better, because even though they are about to perform a very uncomfortable procedure, i thought we were all on the same page. i was confident that i had clearly protected my son's interests, even stupidly proud that i was very upfront and vocal about it all, especially after all the horror stories here. hah!
i was up by reece's shoulders/chest with my right arm around him, so neither of us could see what was happening at the moment. that was my first mistake. reece was crying when she started trying to insert the cath. she missed. she tries two more times, i keep looking over my shoulder when he squeezes his eyes shut and cries, so i can see exactly what is going on. then, reece's eyes fly open in a panic and his body arches and he screams like i have never heard before. i immediately look to see what the hell just happened and this uav nurse cups her hand around his penis to try to block my line of vision. i stand up and slap her hand away- he is fully retracted and in terrible pain, with the catheter in. i immediately start cursing at her, "g-d it, i told you not to do that! you said you wouldn't do that! wtf?!" she, almost non-chalantly, replies that she "had to" and it's fine, she's almost done. seconds later, she finishes and removes the catheter, and now she cannot un-retract him. reece is writhing in agony, i am panicking, and she puts the diaper up over his privates and says that it sometimes take a few moments and it goes back on it's own. WHAT?!?
the resident hears me getting even louder and comes in to see the problem. she sees reece's penis, and the glans is getting darker by the moment. she lunges at the wall, grabs sterile gloves and lubricating jelly and gently tries to work the foreskin back into place. after about 10-15 seconds, she runs out of the room, throwing her gloves off as she goes. she and the attending both come running back in, snapping gloves on as they run. the attending manages to correct the situation, despite our near hysteria (mine and poor reece's).
the attending has the gall to tell me that this sometimes happens. what? well, the nurse probably had to do that. apparently, he didn't count on me verbally flipping out on them. i yelled at him that their nurse just assaulted my son, and not only had no business doing that, but went against my very clear instructions. his demeanor changed after that. instantly no longer condescending. like a lightbulb went off in his head, helping him recognize that this was not just a little mistake, and that despite my tears, my fury was very real.
reece had two easily visible tears in his foreskin, and cried when urinating for the next two days. he has since healed (from what i can tell) without incident. no answer from the urine culture, and heaven knows what ever happened to the stool sample. yeay. so glad we went to the er.
okay, so my very long-winded point... i called the head of emergency medicine, and relayed my story to him the very next day. the doctor was supposed to call me back after speaking to the head of pediatrics. i was supposed to hear from him within 4 days max. i was supposed to hear from a patient advocate as well. as you may have guessed, nothing.
this needs to be addressed. this should never happen to another little boy. who do i take this to? is there any way to get them to listen without getting a lawyer? (i also called a lawyer, who said that, yes, this was medical battery, but it wasn't financially beneficial enough to take on the case. great. that was just my goal, to make money from my son's pain.)
i need help and direction. my guilt for letting this happen to my little boy when i was right freaking there is enormous. i cannot just let this go. suggestions?
so the attending dr makes the decision that in addition to the stool sample, he wants a urine sample to test as well. he tells me he wants to straight cath him. i inform him that the baby is intact, and i will not allow them to retract him at all, and ask if that is going to present a problem. he assures me that the staff is well-versed in catherization of non-circumsized babies. enter the nurse: i repeat, very clearly, that i will not allow retraction at all. she says they see intact babies often, and she states that she is fine with doing the procedure without any type of retraction. there is a respiratory tech present who is going to assist with keeping the baby still. (read: hold him down)
like an ass, i feel a little better, because even though they are about to perform a very uncomfortable procedure, i thought we were all on the same page. i was confident that i had clearly protected my son's interests, even stupidly proud that i was very upfront and vocal about it all, especially after all the horror stories here. hah!
i was up by reece's shoulders/chest with my right arm around him, so neither of us could see what was happening at the moment. that was my first mistake. reece was crying when she started trying to insert the cath. she missed. she tries two more times, i keep looking over my shoulder when he squeezes his eyes shut and cries, so i can see exactly what is going on. then, reece's eyes fly open in a panic and his body arches and he screams like i have never heard before. i immediately look to see what the hell just happened and this uav nurse cups her hand around his penis to try to block my line of vision. i stand up and slap her hand away- he is fully retracted and in terrible pain, with the catheter in. i immediately start cursing at her, "g-d it, i told you not to do that! you said you wouldn't do that! wtf?!" she, almost non-chalantly, replies that she "had to" and it's fine, she's almost done. seconds later, she finishes and removes the catheter, and now she cannot un-retract him. reece is writhing in agony, i am panicking, and she puts the diaper up over his privates and says that it sometimes take a few moments and it goes back on it's own. WHAT?!?
the resident hears me getting even louder and comes in to see the problem. she sees reece's penis, and the glans is getting darker by the moment. she lunges at the wall, grabs sterile gloves and lubricating jelly and gently tries to work the foreskin back into place. after about 10-15 seconds, she runs out of the room, throwing her gloves off as she goes. she and the attending both come running back in, snapping gloves on as they run. the attending manages to correct the situation, despite our near hysteria (mine and poor reece's).
the attending has the gall to tell me that this sometimes happens. what? well, the nurse probably had to do that. apparently, he didn't count on me verbally flipping out on them. i yelled at him that their nurse just assaulted my son, and not only had no business doing that, but went against my very clear instructions. his demeanor changed after that. instantly no longer condescending. like a lightbulb went off in his head, helping him recognize that this was not just a little mistake, and that despite my tears, my fury was very real.
reece had two easily visible tears in his foreskin, and cried when urinating for the next two days. he has since healed (from what i can tell) without incident. no answer from the urine culture, and heaven knows what ever happened to the stool sample. yeay. so glad we went to the er.
okay, so my very long-winded point... i called the head of emergency medicine, and relayed my story to him the very next day. the doctor was supposed to call me back after speaking to the head of pediatrics. i was supposed to hear from him within 4 days max. i was supposed to hear from a patient advocate as well. as you may have guessed, nothing.
this needs to be addressed. this should never happen to another little boy. who do i take this to? is there any way to get them to listen without getting a lawyer? (i also called a lawyer, who said that, yes, this was medical battery, but it wasn't financially beneficial enough to take on the case. great. that was just my goal, to make money from my son's pain.)
i need help and direction. my guilt for letting this happen to my little boy when i was right freaking there is enormous. i cannot just let this go. suggestions?
Your poor little baby 
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if that happens to us I file a lawsuit and put that money towards nocirc awareness. This NEEDS to stop!
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