My Night at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children

This is about a recent experience!

Sleep? Who needs sleep?

This night started just as any other night in my chaotic life. Over the last several nights my daughter has been up screaming most of the night. On this particular night, she was taken to bed at her normal time at 8:30 p.m. Usually my fiancee takes her up and puts her down, then she comes back downstairs to join my son and I watching tv.

As the time was nearing 9:30 p.m. I had a feeling something was not right. Then I heard someone coming down the steps. When I looked up, there was my fiancee standing there flustered holding my daughter, who appeared to have sunburn her face was so red. I questioned what was wrong and she told me my daughter had a temperature, her heart was racing, and her breathing was not right. One quick look and I agreed! We were on our way to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children.

Upon arriving, it was snowing pretty good at this point. The ER was packed and I knew we would be a while. As we sat and waited our turn, the Triage nurse called our name in a little over an hour. At that time her temperature was 104.5 and her breathing was very erratic. Tylenol was given and we were told the breathing was her body reacting to the fever. They told us to check back in an hour for a temperature check. As much as I disagreed with this, they are the professionals. Back to our seat we went.

Another hour goes by and at this point it is standing room only. We check back and the fever is coming down a bit. On our way back to our seat, a family with 2 young kids come in. The ER staff check them and tell them to have a seat. The mother of these children was extremely annoyed. She feels as though she should be taken to the back immediately. The staff explains to her that her kid is no sicker than any other kid and she has to wait her turn. All of a sudden she is flipping out: curing, swearing, and throwing stuff. At this point my fiancee had to get up and move because this woman was out of control. The ER staff calls the police who arrive five minutes later. I must say the police were more than professional, but this woman was out of control. The police remove her and wound up arresting her. Our night is off to a great start huh!

It is now 3 hours after we have arrived and we get called to check in. Then another hour and we are called to the back. While waiting in the back we feel the fever creeping back up. Alas, the doctor is in the house! As you can imagine we have alot of questions. Although the answers we get pretty much are a very nice way of blowing us off. The doctor then proceeds to tell us that my daughter has an inner ear infection and gives her some more Tylenol and some Amoxicilin. They send us home with a prescription for Amoxicilin. Our total time in the ER was 5:52.

We can honestly say that we felt like a number and not a patient. They seemed to have no time for us or for our questions. Here I am writing this 3 days after this wonderful experience and my daughter is still up screaming through the night. The fever is gone but she is still a mess.

Reviews

[Calypso]

"We can honestly say that we felt like a number and not a patient. They seemed to have no time for us or for our questions."
I feel the same way.