Last Friday found Grady & I in the ER…again.
This is my little guy’s third round of stitches – and he’s only two-and-a-half!
The windows in our kitchen are fairly low. Grady was running around the table, tripped & fell face first right into the window sill. I swear, the boy only know one speed – fast.
His had a gash on his cheekbone that was split wide open. Luckily, both Adam & I were home at the time. I took Grady to the hospital, while Adam stayed with Ava & Garrett.
Poor Grady was crying the whole way there. After parking, I quickly gathered him up & brought him in. We were entering the waiting room, when I stopped dead in my tracks. There in the room were 32 people…all in masks. Crap! I completely forgot about the swine flu scare. Suddenly, I realized that this was one of the last places I wanted us in. But, you know, I do have a child bleeding all over…
I put a mask on. Grady absolutely refused. They got us through pretty quickly, for which I was thankful. While there, I requested three times for a plastic surgeon to treat Grady’s face – once when we registered, once when the nurse took Grady’s vitals & once to the attending doctor. I was told that there was no way a plastic surgeon would come in on a Friday night at that time. So, the doctor said he treat Grady & refer him to a plastic surgeon for follow up.
Grady ended up with eight stitches in his face & a pretty good black eye to go with it. He screamed during the entire stitching process. He kept calling, “Help Mommy!” and “All done Mommy!” It was horrible. I kept on trying to soothe him by telling him “it’s okay baby,” “we’re almost done,” etc… I wished I would have requested that they give him something to sedate him. I felt like we were reliving our previous ER visit. We were out of there in about 3 hours. I told Grady we’d stop at McDonald’s for an ice cream cone. Poor little guy crashed though as soon as I buckled him in his car seat.
We followed up with the plastic surgeon on Tuesday. One of the first things he asked me was, “Did you request a plastic surgeon to treat your son?” My voice got a little stuck in my throat as I answered, “Yes, three times.” The doctor looked at me and said, “Nobody paged me.” I shared with him what the staff told me at the ER. The doctor replied, “Ma’am, I’ve been called in at 1 o’clock in the morning for injuries much less severe than this.”
I was livid.
I don’t know if I’m more upset with the hospital staff for misleading me or myself for not being more insistent. I’m still deciding what is the best action to take to resolve this part.
Anyway, Grady has another visit with the plastic surgeon next week. He’ll have his stitches removed & then this doctor will treat him from here on out.
You know, Ava & Garrett have never been to the ER.
I guess Graders is making up for both of them…
Missy said,
May 8, 2009 at 11:43 am
Kelly,
I would be livid too!! As you know I had a plastic surgeon take care of me when I was bitten by a dog many years ago – thank goodness or the scars on my face would probably be way worse. First thing I would do is contact the hospital and ask to talk to someone in charge – Paula may know who the appropriate person would be. There are records of his visit and who saw him so you can be sure to let whoever you talk to know exactly what you were told and also what the plastic surgeon said too. At the very least maybe they won’t make the same mistake again!!! Good luck!! Now you know you are gonna have to post a conclusion to this matter
Jenna said,
May 10, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I would be angry too! My sister had something similar happen to her with my nephew when he split his lip on their piano. After she saw the plastic surgeon, she called the hospital and made a complaint about having requested a plastic surgeon, etc. They got a gift card out of it- not that that makes up for it in the least, but that was how the hospital “corrected” the mistake.
Kelly said,
May 11, 2009 at 6:42 am
Heading back to the doctor tomorrow – I’ll keep you posted!