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
i would die for my babies
My daughter was so sick when she was a year old. Constant diahrreah. I knew something was not right because it was getting worse and worse. Took her to the ER; they said it was just a virus and there is no medication that will get rid of a virus. Frustrated i called my doctor; nothing the first time. Took her back a few days later, and they finally ran a stool test and they discovered she had C-Dificil which is an intestinal bacteria ( NOT VIRAL!!) That can be fatal in small children and elderly. They called the hospital to let them know we were on our way, and they ended up quarantining her for 48 hrs. Thank God the antibiotics worked and she survived, but they told me had I not been pushing the issue she would have most likely died. You always go with your gut when it comes to your children. I stayed by my baby the whole 48 hrs not able to hold her because she was in a bubble and she screamed for me! I can't imagine if she had passed away. Oh and she got it from a kid at her daycare that us parents complained about being there because we could tell this child was ill. They said they kept trying to get the mom to keep the kid home but she kept dropping her off. That's when you tell her absolutely NO and if she attempts to drop off her sick child you would call CPS!. 6 innocent babies got this because of this woman's negligence and not caring that her daughter was ill.
My son had pain in his legs and a fever. When he developed a cough, he was brought to the ER by friends, (I was with my mother who was dying) he was sent home; they said he had the flu. No blood tests, nothing at all. He went to a second ER that night in a lot of pain w/ a lot of coughing. After treating him and giving him medications; he was again sent home w/ a diagnosis of bronchitis. The next night, he went to the hospital again; by ambulance. They sent him to a different hospital and They put in ICU. By the time I got home, it had been 5 days since he first became sick. I arrived to find him in a coma, intubated with tubes everywhere and the Drs still didn't know what he had. 2 days later I was told that he MRSA related necrotizing pneumonia. He died the next day of septic shock and I wanted to die too. The Drs call it a "super bug" but they really don't know enough about it and it is spreading. It mainly affects children and ppl under 30 but it is so deadly. I try to tell everyone because my son was a MRSA Carrier and yet even the infectious disease doctor never warned us that this could ever happened. This illness follows a cold and/ or flu type illness, then comes the cough; death often follows soon after that. Anywhere from 2 days to several weeks....There is a very low survival rate. Christopher was only 19. Pls share this information with your friends so lives might be saved.
My 13 year old son went to bed healthy on 12/30/12 and he never woke up. We are about 90% sure after the autopsy that a virus attacked his heart cells. There was no warning. We had all been feeling a little blechy from various bugs we had been fighting, so he didn't feel or act any different than the rest of us. He spent his last day on Earth playing outside, being rowdy, having fun... No symptoms. My point is just that we never know what might strike our children. Losing my son is the worst thing imaginable.