This story scares the hell out of me.
Rory Stanton, 11, cut his arm playing basketball. A few days later he went to his pediatrician and then to the hospital emergency room. The doctors agreed he was suffering from dehydration -- he was given fluids, told to take Tylenol, and was sent home. He died 3 days later.
Rory, it turns out, was suffering septic shock from a staph infection.
As a parent, an undiagnosed or misdiagnosed medical condition that turns fatal is one of my biggest fears. When I was in my twenties, I had a 9-year-old student who I saw on a Thursday -- and by the following Tuesday I was attending her viewing. If you’ve never had the misfortune of attending a child’s funeral, trust me, it's something that sticks with you forever. The pain and emptiness that the loss left with her parents is something that I never want to experience.
This was preceded by my nephew’s leukemia diagnosis a few years earlier. He was three!! Who expects a three-year-old to be diagnosed with life threatening cancer? A child being gravely ill can shock you into a new state of existence. You begin to question all that you ever believed in. It creates a fear in you that compels you to see passed the moment and to do anything and everything possible to save that child. The alternative is too gruesome to even consider.
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Rory Staunton had a sick stomach. My nephew had bruising. My student had a general feeling of malaise. In each case, it took more than one return visit to the doctor’s office for the doctor to make the correct diagnosis. Unfortunately, some illnesses progress faster than others.
This is why we parents must follow our guts and, in some cases, pursue treatment if we feel that the medical professionals are not curing what ails our child. As parents, we know our children and sometimes we can see things that a professional who only sees our child on the occasional basis might miss. We have to be the advocates for our children no matter what. Even if it may feel uncomfortable or like we are stepping on other people's toes, we have to do what we feel is best for our children. The cost is too high.
From my own experience, I always follow my gut feeling. If I feel treatment is not working or that there may be something more, I have no problem pushing for additional testing or getting a second or even third opinion. I can mend fences and survive hurting a doctor’s feelings; the same cannot be said about the loss of my children.
Rory Staunton’s parents kept taking him back. They did the right thing but the doctors missed it. The doctors figured out what was wrong too late to do anything about it. Sometimes we have to do things as parents that push us out of our comfort zone in order to do what’s best for our children.
What would you do to save your child?
Image via dreamingofariz/Flickr
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Comments 56
How do you know the parents didn't do everything they could, to no avail?
my daughter, right before her 2nd birthday, woke up with a red swollen cheek. i called her dr. and they were going to see her at 1 that day. i put her down for a nap. when i went to wake her up to get her ready for her appt. i felt her and she was burning up and her cheek was huge. i freaked out and told my husband we were taking her to the ER. as soon as we got there it was packed. the nurse up front saw took one look at her and brought us back. she was pale but red from the fever and it look like a golf ball was inside her cheek. they start giving her an iv with fluids and med. for the fever and pain. the dr. tried to open her mouth and she screamed. the whole time i was freaking out, and my poor hubby was crying. they had to transfer her to another hospital to be admitted. we get there and she was admitted. after almost a week being there (i was 37 weeks pregnant) and me having a couple of total breakdowns we found out she had staph and celuitius. they looked at her top to bottom and could not find out how she got it, since you get staph from an open wound. she didnt have anything! she wasnt cutting any teeth at the time. so it was all a mystery. the doctors told me i was right on the spot to bring her in so fast. this was her when she was first admitted. she is now a happy and healthy and a bowl full of trouble 2 1/2 yr old. and i wouldnt have it any other way!!
I learned that a long time ago, with my husband. He had bad pain in his pelvic area for 3or4 years. Doctor's kept telling him to let them do surgery on his back. He didn,'t want to do it then. Dr's. told him, when it got where he .could not stand it anymore,to call them. He lived 6 yrs. Had 7 surgeries in that time. Passed away from a cancer, that had no cure,except, removal. So it happens more than we know. My heart goes out to the parent's. God Bless You Both.
He never should have left without the blood test results. I see people insisting that blood cultures should have been done. Wouldn't have done a thing. They take 72, 48 at the minimum hours to be cultured and sensitized. What should have happened is simple...he should not have been allowed to go home without the blood test results. When at the ER don't leave. It may take an hour maybe two for the lab to run it all but it can save a life. Had they gotten the CBC results in the doctors face we wouldn't be reading this article...
I've done this for both my daughter and my mother. My mother almost died from severe dehydration, and if I hadn't pushed the ER doc to talk to the admitting physician instead of sending her home, she wouldn't be here now.
You cannot be afraid to speak up. A life may be depending on it.
My daughter had developed a terrible cough. It got so bad she was vomiting everytime she coughed... Dr tried multiple antibiotics... insisted on using the nebulizer (even though her lungs were clear).. brought her to the dr almost every day for a week... Once her skin started turning purple and blistering, her doc tested for staph and sent her to the childrens hospital... We don't know what caused it, but I am so thankful we figured it out and got her better... That was the worst week of my life.
Thank you for leaving out the rest of the story. He told his mom in passing he got cut at school. Any intelligent mother, would have cleaned the cut first, called the pediatrician and in formed them he was cut at school and maybe the pedi would have said to come in asap or head to the ER because no one knows what bacteria could have ended up in the child, for all we know he got cut with a blade that had blood on it and ended up with ecoli or something. Give more information to your health care providers about whats wrong, i only state this as I have worked in the medical field and had dealt with staph infections to the runs.
My heart breaks for all those families who have lost a child due to an incorrect diagnosis and/or a correct diagnosis that was made too late. If something was wrong with my daughter and I wasnt satisified with what her pediatrician had to say I would take her straight to the ER and push for whatever testing I felt was necessary. As much as we'd like to think that DR's know everything, they are human and sometimes make mistakes. I would hope that when they do it would not result in the loss of a life but obviously they do sometimes end that way.