i was in children's hospital with my son new yrs eve from 11pm-3am(walked out)

my son had a mild asthma attack and stopped breathing for 2-3mins. so i tuck him to the hospital, from 11pm -12.34am to be seen then my son was refused to have an asthma inhaler because he did not need it ,his chest was clear, but from from having Asthma myself i know you dont need to be wheezing to need an inhaler.

then when we was finally seen by a second at 2.30am doctor she said oh he should be okay to go home i just need to talk to the registrar so we waited. my partner went to ask if my son could go home, in which the registrar said can you wait i am talking my partner 4rt it must have been about my son, but no he was having a everyday conversation. my partner asked a second time when he started a everyday type of conversation only told to be quite a minute.

this is ridiculous for a hospital even more so a children's hospital!!:rant::rant:

so you just took your child home without the official ok to do so. sorry but im failing to see who's at fault here. Ulitmately if medical profesionals ask you to wait for the benefit of your child.... then you wait. If the registrar is talking to somebody, how do you know they havnt passed the info on and are waiting a responce from somebody? you obviously didn't think your child was seriously ill, as surely you would have stayed there.

so you just took your child home without the official ok to do so. sorry but im failing to see who's at fault here. Ulitmately if medical profesionals ask you to wait for the benefit of your child.... then you wait. If the registrar is talking to somebody, how do you know they havnt passed the info on and are waiting a responce from somebody? you obviously didn't think your child was seriously ill, as surely you would have stayed there.

he was talking to the doctor that had seen my son, and i know i should not really had walked out but the doctor said "your son should be okay to go home now" i just tuck him home, gave him an inhaler when i got in and he was fine all night.

so what are you complaining about then?

i remember going to the childrens a while ago with my daughter, she is diabetic and her sugar levels was reading high (over 30) and she was releasing ketones in her urine.
when to get assessed and whip straight through to a and e, where one woman started complaining as she had been waiting 3 hours to see a doctor.
my daughter was taken to a room, where they took her sugars and hooked her onto a drip to lower the sugar levels, then left us for 30 minutes, in which time i went to phone her father as we are separted.
the woman i mentioned came out to me and started having a go at me, because in her eyes i had queue jump, i tried explaining that my daughter had a serious medical problem, but she wasnt listening to me. when i went back to the room my daughter was sat up in bed, then she went unconscious and started fitting.
loads of nurses came rushing in, moved her to a open area in front of the nurse station and she was put on 5 mins observation she was put on a heart monitior and a breathing monitior and was kept on woken up to stop her slipping into a coma.
then the woman who had gobbed me earlier walked through with her child, took one look at mine and said sorry for having at go at me.
i waited for a diabetic doctor to be called in to see my daughter and we ended up on intensive care for the night.

i have nothing nasty to say about the childrens as they have saved my daughter life 4 times since she has been diabetic and i think they all do a brilliant job :D

the fact that when my son had stopped breathing how long i was waiting is ridiculous!!

the woman i mentioned came out to me and started having a go at me, because in her eyes i had queue jump, i tried explaining that my daughter had a serious medical problem, but she wasnt listening to me.

this is whats wrong with society!

:confused: So you took him to the Children's Hospital because he had a mild asthma attack but gave him a dose of (I assume) Salbutamol when you got him back home - had you not already given him a dose before you went? If so, surely this might have improved his condition resulting in the doctor's saying he didn't need any more?

I don't think you can call them useless when you dispute qualified medical advice and take your son home before he'd been properly discharged.

but if your son WAS consious and breathing by the time you got him to the hospital then surely any immediate threat had passed. Also are you sure he wasnt breathing for around 3 mins, i thought a person suffers brain damage if they dont breathe for 3 mins!

i remember going to the childrens a while ago with my daughter, she is diabetic and her sugar levels was reading high (over 30) and she was releasing ketones in her urine.
when to get assessed and whip straight through to a and e, where one woman started complaining as she had been waiting 3 hours to see a doctor.
my daughter was taken to a room, where they took her sugars and hooked her onto a drip to lower the sugar levels, then left us for 30 minutes, in which time i went to phone her father as we are separted.
the woman i mentioned came out to me and started having a go at me, because in her eyes i had queue jump, i tried explaining that my daughter had a serious medical problem, but she wasnt listening to me. when i went back to the room my daughter was sat up in bed, then she went unconscious and started fitting.
loads of nurses came rushing in, moved her to a open area in front of the nurse station and she was put on 5 mins observation she was put on a heart monitior and a breathing monitior and was kept on woken up to stop her slipping into a coma.
then the woman who had gobbed me earlier walked through with her child, took one look at mine and said sorry for having at go at me.
i waited for a diabetic doctor to be called in to see my daughter and we ended up on intensive care for the night.

i have nothing nasty to say about the childrens as they have saved my daughter life 4 times since she has been diabetic and i think they all do a brilliant job :D




i understand that some people need to be seen asap, but when you was the second person in the hospital (it was completely empty) and about 15 other people came in after you and got seen faster one of them been a drunk 12yr old, it takes the ****!

but if your son WAS consious and breathing by the time you got him to the hospital then surely any immediate threat had passed. Also are you sure he wasnt breathing for around 3 mins, i thought a person suffers brain damage if they dont breathe for 3 mins!

I think if someone actually stopped breathing for 3 mins common sense would dictate they'd have dialled 999 instead of driving to the hospital so perhaps it isn't quite the case.

no it doesnt. it suggests that all the people seen to were sicker than your child! im sure seeing a drunk 12 year old was frustrating as it shouldnt happen, but ultimately the child must have been at higher risk than your child.

I think if someone actually stopped breathing for 3 mins common sense would dictate they'd have dialled 999 instead of driving to the hospital so perhaps it isn't quite the case.

id be inclined to agree

:confused: So you took him to the Children's Hospital because he had a mild asthma attack but gave him a dose of (I assume) Salbutamol when you got him back home - had you not already given him a dose before you went? If so, surely this might have improved his condition resulting in the doctor's saying he didn't need any more?

I don't think you can call them useless when you dispute qualified medical advice and take your son home before he'd been properly discharged.


when he stopped breathing i was more botherd about getting him to hospital to be seen to!!

I don't really think even if you didn't like the attitude one one doctor that you can start say the Sheffield Childrens Hospital as a whole is useless. I'm not sure how often you've used it or how often you have not needed to use it for you child, never or rarely I hope. But being diagnosed as diabetic at 12 I spent many years as a teeneger going there for appointments and had times when I was taken there by ambulance, spending my fair share of time in A&E.

Might sound like I'm ranting and when it seems like your child isn't receiving the correct treatment it must be extremely annoying but from your thread title it seems your branding the hospital itself with the useless tag.

If you think your child didn't receive the correct care or a member of staff didn't behave in a professional manner, I suggest the best thing to do would be to make an official complaint.

I think if someone actually stopped breathing for 3 mins common sense would dictate they'd have dialled 999 instead of driving to the hospital so perhaps it isn't quite the case.


i only live 2mins from the hospital so it was quicker to drive!

i understand that some people need to be seen asap, but when you was the second person in the hospital (it was completely empty) and about 15 other people came in after you and got seen faster one of them been a drunk 12yr old, it takes the ****!

I can understand your anguish on this as I have kids myself.. And if one of them were ill, I'd be upset too.. However, if those 15 other kids that came in after you were in a worst situation than your son, then surely they would get priority...

but if your son WAS consious and breathing by the time you got him to the hospital then surely any immediate threat had passed. Also are you sure he wasnt breathing for around 3 mins, i thought a person suffers brain damage if they dont breathe for 3 mins!

i can ashore you he has stopped breathing he'd gone a gray/white color and 4rt he was asleep so i tryed to wake him and he could not wake so i blow in his moth and he opened his eyes screaming

Maybe the communication broke down a little, but I assume that your child was assessed/triaged fairly quickly?

Perhaps they identified no immediate problem and then, as could be expected, recommended waiting for a while to confirm that all was still OK before discharging.

We are really lucky to have our dedicated childrens hospital. It is a facility that is not available in all towns and I have nothing but praise for the way we have always been treated when visiting there.

Emergency treatment on New Years Eve? I suspect 3 hours was good going! :)

I can understand your anguish on this as I have kids myself.. And if one of them were ill, I'd be upset too.. However, if those 15 other kids that came in after you were in a worst situation than your son, then surely they would get priority...

most of them where playing where as my son was falling in and out of sleep and been sick.

i understand that some people need to be seen asap, but when you was the second person in the hospital (it was completely empty) and about 15 other people came in after you and got seen faster one of them been a drunk 12yr old, it takes the ****!

Just because the waiting area is empty does NOT mean that the treatment and resuscitation areas are empty and if your son was medically not an emergency then other people will be seen faster- that's the purpose of triage, to determine who can afford to wait and who needs to be seen as a priority.

most of them where playing where as my son was falling in and out of sleep and been sick.

Well maybe they were doing what cgksheff said here..

Perhaps they identified no immediate problem and then, as could be expected, recommended waiting for a while to confirm that all was still OK before discharging.

But you didn't wait to find out... Not their fault, sorry...

It's comforting to know that there are unqualified parents out there that can diagnose, triage and treat (against medical advice) their own children.

If you hadn't left before being discharged, you may have found that although they were sending him home, they may have been referring him to a different department for further tests at a later date or discussing the need for you to take your son to his GP. Could it not be possible that it wasn't an asthma attack at all and you just didn't wait around to find out? 11pm-3am is 4 hours and during this time you had been both triaged and seen by a doctor, it's not an unreasonable wait.

he had been "watched" in the play room from 12.34am

most of them where playing where as my son was falling in and out of sleep and been sick.

and you still decided it would be perfectly ok to take your son home before getting the ok by the doctor.
the day i was talking about earlier about, they was a girl in there too also drunk and had been playing chicken with a car and she had got hit.
one of her mates said before her parents come,' you should have seen the ladys face when you did it, she was sh**ting herself, you can put a claim in as she hit you"
sadly this is how the world is coming to, underage drinking is cool at the moment in some kids eyes and things like this are filling up the hospital far to often, making the waiting time more longer to wait

It's comforting to know that there are unqualified parents out there that can diagnose, triage and treat (against medical advice) their own children.

If you hadn't left before being discharged, you may have found that although they were sending him home, they may have been referring him to a different department for further tests at a later date or discussing the need for you to take your son to his GP. Could it not be possible that it wasn't an asthma attack at all and you just didn't wait around to find out? 11pm-3am is 4 hours and during this time you had been both triaged and seen by a doctor, it's not an unreasonable wait.


i am taking him to the doctors today! ive had asthma since i was 6month, so im not totally clueless about it!!!

and you still decided it would be perfectly ok to take your son home before getting the ok by the doctor.
the day i was talking about earlier about, they was a girl in there too also drunk and had been playing chicken with a car and she had got hit.
one of her mates said before her parents come,' you should have seen the ladys face when you did it, she was sh**ting herself, you can put a claim in as she hit you"
sadly this is how the world is coming to, underage drinking is cool at the moment in some kids eyes and things like this are filling up the hospital far to often, making the waiting time more longer to wait



he had as good as got the okay to go home when the doctor said he should be okay to go home now

and you still decided it would be perfectly ok to take your son home before getting the ok by the doctor.
the day i was talking about earlier about, they was a girl in there too also drunk and had been playing chicken with a car and she had got hit.
one of her mates said before her parents come,' you should have seen the ladys face when you did it, she was sh**ting herself, you can put a claim in as she hit you"
sadly this is how the world is coming to, underage drinking is cool at the moment in some kids eyes and things like this are filling up the hospital far to often, making the waiting time more longer to wait

hopefully the girl will claim, the medical records showing she was drunk will be shown in court and her parents will be prosecuted for child neglect!!

he had as good as got the okay to go home when the doctor said he should be okay to go home now

well dont complain then. your child recieved attention and was given the all clear, what is your exact problem.

i'll repeat... this is what is wrong with society!!

he had as good as got the okay to go home when the doctor said he should be okay to go home now

so why are you coming on the forum and laying into the childrens hospital, stating that they are useless, they are there to save lifes for fs

well dont complain then. your child recieved attention and was given the all clear, what is your exact problem.

i'll repeat... this is what is wrong with society!!

Yep :confused:

Also the Thread title, I feel is a little harsh !!

my girlfriend had the nasty flu that goin round the other day. She collapsed and smashed her head on the sink, knocking her self out. I took her to the northern general and they were absoloutly amazing! couldnt have asked for nicer staff, she dealt with promptly, efficiently and with respect. I for one feel lucky that we have a national health service. We could live in a country such as america where u only get treatment if you can afford it!!

he had as good as got the okay to go home when the doctor said he should be okay to go home now

Do you really think that they like to keep people waiting just for the sake of it ??

I'm sure, in fact positive that they would have done what they could, when they could...
If other things happened that needed priority, then unfortunatly for you, you had to wait a little longer..

And you said yourself, he "as good as" got the ok when the doctor said "he should be ok".. But he didn't get the full ok did he ?? Because you didn't wait to find out...

The childrens hosp are brilliant. When I had really bad stomach aches, and thought it was my appendix, (I was 13 at the time) I had to wait 7 hours before being seen to. But I realised that the few month old baby beside us who was drifting in and out of it was higher priority. I waited my turn until I was priority. I never complained. If you was dying and needed urgent medical attention would you like it if somebody else who'd broken their arm to be seen to first. I think not.

If your son was being observed in the waiting room then obviously they are going to treat other children whilst you wait. What if they had said after half an hour, ok he seems ok you can take him home and something else happened to him once you got him home? The doctors themselves don't observe and so need to get information from those observing. There are reasons they may have been stood chatting, the person who had observed your son may have gone for a break for example. I wouldn't care how long it took, I wouldn't have taken my child out without a complete yes your child is fine to go. The doctor might have thought everything seemed fine but then the observer tell them something they didn't know.

I have never had a problem with the childrens, they have always been excellent. I once got a few snide remarks when I walked into a & e with my daughter and was seen straight into a private room. The comments I heard whilst popping to the loo disgusted me, my daughter had been sent there by her g.p with suspected meningitus so it was for their childrens sake as well as mine. Obviously the only thing they saw was a quiet baby. Things aren't always as they seem.

I hope you son is now fit and well but next time sit it out and wait because if anything happened after you'd left you would never forgive yourself.

When any child is unwell the parents are concerned and as such perhaps do not see the situation for what it is.....which is why all cases are triaged.....an unbiased opinion to determine which patient should be seem immediately and which can afford to wait a while.

In cases involving children there is concern.....any child being sick is distressing and of course at the Children's Hospital they are all children and in turn each of the other parents waiting have children they are concerned and distressed about.

The teams there would have made their best assessment and would have treated your child accordingly....and I might stress here that you should have waited.

I recently underwent surgery under general anaesthetic and came home having discharged myself after a couple of hours. If I choose to leave the hospital then it is my decision and I accept the consequences.

Had something happened after you left you would have had to live with that. You are responsible for your child and as such you should have put his interests first.

When I lived in London and my son was young....he was ill and I took him to the local hospital and he was seen straight away....the reason being that he is profoundly deaf and with added learning disabilities and thus could not tell them where it hurt and how he felt.

And in turn I have been waiting (before the time where casualties were triaged) and someone has come in with a child - and as I was called in fairly quickly (having waited quite a bit) I then offered my slot to the child and said I was happy to wait again.....which I did.

I know it was distressing for you and your child.....but next time do what is asked of you.

I hope your child is now well :)

It does seem harsh the critisism you are giving the hospital. I can understand the frustration but your son was obviously not the most serious case there needing to be treated. U must understand however a child may look does not indicate how ill they are- just coz they seem ok to play doesnt mean their ok. Your child was not prioritised as a risk and you should have respected that medical opinion. They do a fantastic job and dont need hassle from parents telling them otherwise. Did u hear them complaining that they were saving children's lives on ny eve rather than out celebrating with loved ones etc? Guess not. Hopefully when u have calmed down u will appreciate the medical care your child did get and retract your overly harsh statement. ps and also remember every case/patient is different- just because u have asthma does not mean u know how u child should be/needs to be treated. Leave it to the experts. On a happier note im glad your child was ok and hopefully u wont have to go through the experience again.

Please can a mod change the title of this thread to something along the lines of "parent can't be a**ed to wait at a hospital for their child to be officially discharged" ?

If it were my child in hospital I wouldn't mind waiting for 1 hour or all day just as long as I know that they are fit and well... you seemed in a rush to get there when they were ill, but then equally in a rush to get back home (I presume to bed) after only a couple of hours...

It looks to me like your priorities are all wrong. :loopy:

Please can a mod change the title of this thread to something along the lines of "parent can't be a**ed to wait at a hospital for their child to be officially discharged"

It looks to me like your priorities are all wrong. :loopy:

my thoughts exactully.

i wish that the only thing my daughter had to worry about was asthma (before anyone jumps down my throat, my mum has it)but at the end of the day, she thought her child was well enough to go home, but what if her child had had another attack in the night and she wasnt around when he stopped breathing, who would be to blame then.
my kids are my main priority in life and i would walk over hot coals to make sure they are ok to leave a hospital before actually taking them home, just because one person said it would be ok to go home, YOU should have waited for the doctor to discharged your child

Im sorry but i find this thread appaling. I agree to have a child in distress and unwell is very heart wrenching for a parent. Its awfull to see them feeling poorly or hurt and we do get overprotective. But im sorry your child may not be needing emergency attention compared to others. Spare a thought for the parents and who are just being told their child has luekimia and has to go through months of chemo or being told your child could not be resucitated and think yourself dam lucky that you get to take your child home. Some people will spend the rest of their lives thinking they would gladly have sat there for hours and got to bring there baby home safe and well.

I only have praise for the childrens hospital, took my 6yr old a couple of weeks ago after a fall( he had stitches in his head) The people at that place are brilliant.
It is understandable that if its your child thats ill you want them to be seen to, but you still have to remember that more serious cases come in all the time.
patients are seen in order of priority, if your child was considered a priority he would have been seen quicker.
There was lots of people that came in after me and left before me, but their children obviously must`ve needed attention sooner than my boy.
The staff at the childrens do an excellent job, you really shouldn`t slate them!

I only have praise for the childrens hospital, took my 6yr old a couple of weeks ago after a fall( he had stitches in his head) The people at that place are brilliant.
It is understandable that if its your child thats ill you want them to be seen to, but you still have to remember that more serious cases come in all the time.
patients are seen in order of priority, if your child was considered a priority he would have been seen quicker.
There was lots of people that came in after me and left before me, but their children obviously must`ve needed attention sooner than my boy.
The staff at the childrens do an excellent job, you really shouldn`t slate them!


Here Here.
I have mucho respecto for the Children's Hospital.
We are lucky to have such a great hospital in our city.
If something had happened or the situation worsened whilst you were there, they would have taken your son through immediately and acted promptly.
I know a sick child can be extremeley worrying for Parents / Carers but you really must look at the bigger picture ....
Also people discharging their children through impatience does not help matters for them, already doing a difficult job under a lot of pressure.

i had a problem with the childrens hospital it all started with my 2 year old daughter who had fall off her trampoline and a bad cut to the head near the eye and you could see the bone so i took her to the childrens and all they did was clean it and glue & put them strips on and sent her home not even an xray but over night she got worse and the wound was swelling bad so we rushed her back in & then they decided to do an xray and found a fracture & because of the swelling she had to have a emergency surgery and then that was'nt the end because they never put a drain in so 2 weeks later she had to have a 2nd operation to put a drain in and is still ongoing because she needs her eyes checking.so my trust in the childrens is zero because it would'nt have got like this in the 1st place if they did there job right and did an xray and kept her in

when he stopped breathing i was more botherd about getting him to hospital to be seen to!!

But the immediate care in an ambulance could have been better than a journey in a car even though there would have been a delay , concerned that you have taken a child home who stopped breathing for 3 minites

i am taking him to the doctors today! ive had asthma since i was 6month, so im not totally clueless about it!!!

let's hope no one was needing that doctors appointment today then, just because you could not be bothered to wait.

This thread sums up what seems to be wrong with most parents, the old "My child is the most important thing on Earth, therefore my child deserves everything now", and we wonder why the teens also mentioned in this thread feel free to claim against a car driver after drunkenly playing chicken.

If your child had been hit by a car and was critically ill would you have told the medical staff you would have waited in the queue and they must help the people who entered A&E before you or would you expect them to prioritise in order of urgency? Which is what they do.

my son had a mild asthma attack and stopped breathing for 2-3mins.

Unfortunatly, I can't take any of your post seriously, because if this bit were true your child would either be dead or in intensive care with severe hypoxic brain injury.

I can only assume the rest of what you have written is crap too.

Do I detect a correlation on this thread relating to the level of grammar of those complaining about services?

most of them where playing where as my son was falling in and out of sleep and been sick.

If my child had stopped breathing and was acting like this afterwards, the last thing I would do is leave the hospital:loopy:

This thread sums up what seems to be wrong with most parents, the old "My child is the most important thing on Earth, therefore my child deserves everything now", and we wonder why the teens also mentioned in this thread feel free to claim against a car driver after drunkenly playing chicken.

If your child had been hit by a car and was critically ill would you have told the medical staff you would have waited in the queue and they must help the people who entered A&E before you or would you expect them to prioritise in order of urgency? Which is what they do.

No, not most parents.

My child might be the most important thing on Earth to ME but I certainly appreciate not everyone holds her in such high esteem!:D

Just for the record what does '4rt' mean in one of the OP's posts.:huh:

my sister had an apnoeic (she stopped breathing) attack at the age of 9 months, nearly 30 years ago and we whizzed her straight to the Children's hospital. Our family can't fault them.

My sis was a prem baby, who spent the first three weeks of her life in Jessops' SCBU (Special care baby unit).

She seemed fine in the ambulance, and then had another apnoeic attack (turned out, that she literally "forgot" how to breathe!!) in the A&E dept, whilst waiting to see the docs.

She had a week in hospital, and the veryday she was given the all clear to go home, my mother bathed her ready to take her home, and lo-and-behold, she had another "Do".

We can't quibble about the treatment, or anything to do with the doctors seeing her, during this episode. Yes, she has asthma, now, but she is otherwise a hale and hearty 30 year old, now, with a baby of her own.

edit to add, yeah, I find "txtspk" posts extremely difficult to translate into standard english, too and it irritates the life out of me.

My mind has just sent me a reminder about why the OP sounds incorrect here:

If a child has a minor asthma attack then that does NOT result in them stopping breathing or turning blue. If they stop breathing or turn blue then by definition it isn't mild asthma- I've got mild asthma and it causes wheezing, coughing and struggling to breathe, but it doesn't cause unconsciousness or a total lack of breathing.

What causes a total lack of breathing is very severe asthma or status asthmaticus, and that's definitely not mild and is a medical emergency as is every other cause of stopping breathing.

Whether he'd stopped breathing or not, by the time the OP got the child to A&E he was obviously breathing well or the doctors would have given oxygen, a nebuliser or both. This means that whatever the doctors may suggest for further investigations to work out why he stopped breathing (and we'll never know because of not waiting for discharge advice) the need for A&E services is over and the patient is ready to be passed on to other secondary care professionals or back into the primary care system.

Unfortunatly, I can't take any of your post seriously, because if this bit were true your child would either be dead or in intensive care with severe hypoxic brain injury.

I can only assume the rest of what you have written is crap too.

Glad someone else could put my exact thoughts a little more clearly than I did.

'Mild' asthma attack, 'stopped breathing' 'drove son to hospital myself' 'walked out' just does not add up. What the OP described in a later post doesn't sound anything like an asthma attack either so either that's complete rubbish or the OP is genuinely demanding that a child that goes into A&E having recovered from a bit of wheezing is given urgent priority.

The OP also seems to trust the doctors when they say it's probably ok to go home, but not their diagnosis and treatment :confused: No parent with a child that had genuinely stopped breathing for a period would walk out of A&E after only 4 hours if they did not think their child had been treated appropriately.

What's more, in a show of what many might consider dangerous arrogance, she then takes her son home and gives him the exact treatment the doctors have just told her he didn't need.

One more thing that's concerning me by the way the posts have been written - has the son in fact ever been diagnosed with asthma or has the OP decided to diagnose it herself based on her own previous experience?

Im have asthma.... 2 of my kids have asthma... i know and understand that watching your child suffer from a asthma attack is worrying and upsetting... but im sorry bobgirlsnake i think the way you talk and the way you left is pathetic, id stay there all day just to be sure.... you cant have been that worried to be in such a rush to leave... why is everything with hospital have to be here and now.... whats a few hrs in someones life?? Be thankful we have a childrens hospital... i am... the 2 kids i say have asthma have both been in the childrens with meningitis... puts life Into Perspective.

Also want to echo what julado and others have already said... there may have been a wait, (It comes with the territory of 'needing to attend an A&E dept) but the triage nurse is trained to assess who needs to be seen there and then, and who are not such high priority. also, were there to be any change in the child's condition, (IE if child had gone from being conscious/breathing to being unconscious/ not breathing) then the child's emergency status would have been elevated, and been made more of a priority. Child would not have been left to suffocate, to death, on the grounds that
" *shrug* well, it was breathing when it arrived...!*shrug*"

the childrens are fantastic its like home to my family cause in 2005 son diagnosed with lymphoma 6 months intensive chemo ,18 months on tablet form chemo have to say the doctors and nurses made the worst time of our families life bearable

When my niece stopped breathing with croup in the middle of the night when she was tiny my sister and bro in law took the decision to drive her to the hospital themselves rather than call an ambulance because they live 9 miles from the nearest emergency department, which also happens to be the local ambulance station (so they would be waiting a fair while for an ambulance) and there were 2 adults, both of whom could drive and both of whom are qualified first aiders who had both passed a neonatal and baby resuscitation course just before my niece was born. This means that there was one adult going hell for leather and not caring if they got pulled by the police or snapped by a camera whilst the other was performing resuscitation in the back on my niece.

When they got to the hospital they were made a priority case and my niece was intubated and put on oxygen within a couple of minutes of their arrival. That's what stopping breathing means to me- by the time the OP's son was awake and crying the need for being treated as though he wasn't breathing was already over.

When I was little the Children's was to all intents and purposes my second home, as I was constantly in and out with Pneumonia! I couldn't fault it though, nowt but the classic kids' telly all day! This was all as far back as the late 70s/early 80s by the way.

If it had been my child stop breathing wherever I might be I'd dial 999. You say your child had stopped breathing, if that is so then I am sure the staff at the SCH would have seen to your child straightaway.

As a member of staff of SCH I am pleased to see so many positive responses to the service that SCH provide. Our Consultants,doctors and nursing staff are second to none and as a member of the admin department even our staff are very caring people and do out utmost to help.

As a parent I would not have taken my child away without the consent of a Dr HOWEVER LONG I HAD TO WAIT. If you feel so strongly about it rather than criticising on the forum why not write to the Pals Manager at Sheffield who I am sure would like to hear your thoughts.

What a load or rubbish!!! If i genuinely believed my child had a respiratory arrest or stopped breathing, i wouldn't leave the A&E department even when they were kicking me out.
Why did you wait for 3 mins befor you gave them a breath, thats a hell of a long time, understandable if your calling an ambulance. obviously you weren't.I'm not suprised your child let out a scream i would if somebody forced a breath into my lungs
If you dialled 999 and told them you had a child who wasn't breathing i can assure you you would have a trained paramedic with you in a very short time as well as somebody to talk you through what you need to do at the other end of the phone.

Obviously the staff did not realise you were so stressed or they might have talked to you more. Your child was obviously breathing okay and chest was clear, they would think that would make you happy and therefore had no need to spell everything out. A consultation with a collegue could be quite short such as "Shall we refer? Shall we send home? Shall we order tests?" One word answer and then friendly conversation. Doesn't mean they didn't consult. I remember when I brought my child in with an injury I had to wait a while for a senior consultant to look at him. He didn't actually look at the child, didn't need to, just checked the notes and agreed with the doctor he could go home. Took all of 2 minutes. It took an hour for him to come because he was busy with more critical patients. In my experience Children's hospital always involves a lot of waiting around but they don't do it on purpose. Better than having to take your child to an adult casualty which can be a horendous experience for a child and just as long a wait.

I have noticed that the OP has not added to this thread since post 27....do you think (s)he was looking for backup (s)he didn't find on here.

I do hope that (s)he has read the rest of this thread and takes on board what has been posted.....it is obviously what (s)he did NOT want to hear but it had to be said. :|

Just as a postscript......my OH suffers from asthma.....he is 47. We don't live together (at either end of a small block of maisonettes).....my phone rang at 12.30am.....it was him but he COULDN'T speak....he was fighting for breath.....I went round immediately.....I couldn't do anything.....dialled 999.....they were there in 3 minutes and took charge of the situation and resolved the immediate problem. And all in the early hours of Christmas Eve.....my heartfelt praise and thanks to the services who work during the times most people are not. :D

ASTHMA ATTACKS CAN KILL.....so I would just say to the OP I sincerely hope there is NO next time but if there is DO WHAT IS ASKED OF YOU.

IT COULD SAVE YOUR CHILD'S LIFE.

Think this thread is coming to a timely end, we all are impatient when it comes to our kids and all expect to be seen as a priority, unfortunately, we are in the real world and the professionals make those decisions for us !

Put up and shut up !!!!!!!!!!!! :rant:

I recently went to the Childrens Hospital and was there over 5 hours before the first doctor came, she said it was fine for my son to go home, but await the registar - the registrar kept us there over night!!!

I think the hospital did a great job and looked after me too over night!!

Please can a mod change the title of this thread to something along the lines of "parent can't be a**ed to wait at a hospital for their child to be officially discharged" ?

If it were my child in hospital I wouldn't mind waiting for 1 hour or all day just as long as I know that they are fit and well... you seemed in a rush to get there when they were ill, but then equally in a rush to get back home (I presume to bed) after only a couple of hours...

It looks to me like your priorities are all wrong. :loopy:

actually i did not go home and to bed i was up all night in his bed room so i could keep an eye on him!!

and ive been to the doctors to day who said i DID the right thing by coming home, and has upped how much inhaler my son needs and given him a new one, he said he cant understand why the hospital could not give him an inhaler as children dont always wheeze to need an inhaler

let's hope no one was needing that doctors appointment today then, just because you could not be bothered to wait.

i would have taken him anyway!

Why was it the right thing to do to leave? If you only sat up all night anyway what harm was there in staying to wait for the final verdict from the registrar?

and ive been to the doctors to day who said i DID the right thing by coming home, and has upped how much inhaler my son needs and given him a new one, he said he cant understand why the hospital could not give him an inhaler as children dont always wheeze to need an inhaler

Why would a qualified G.P say you were right to take your child out of the safety of a hospital following breathing difficulties without being discharged officialy?

Also, they may have given you the inhaler if you had stuck around long enough to find out what the verdict was.

Why would a qualified G.P say you were right to take your child out of the safety of a hospital following breathing difficulties without being discharged officialy?

Also, they may have given you the inhaler if you had stuck around long enough to find out what the verdict was.

he said it because if it helped him out over the night it must have been needed!

actually i did not go home and to bed i was up all night in his bed room so i could keep an eye on him!!

and ive been to the doctors to day who said i DID the right thing by coming home, and has upped how much inhaler my son needs and given him a new one, he said he cant understand why the hospital could not give him an inhaler as children dont always wheeze to need an inhaler

There's a difference between the GP saying your child has come to no harm because you left early and saying you did the right thing by leaving before he was discharged (which I don't believe any reasonable GP would say).

There's a difference between the GP saying your child has come to no harm because you left early and saying you did the right thing by leaving before he was discharged (which I don't believe any reasonable GP would say).


well obviously u seem to think you know everything, well looks like you dont because my doctor did say that i was there with my son NOT you,

There's a difference between the GP saying your child has come to no harm because you left early and saying you did the right thing by leaving before he was discharged (which I don't believe any reasonable GP would say).

my words exactully twiglet

well obviously u seem to think you know everything, well looks like you dont because my doctor did say that i was there with my son NOT you,

you dont know everything, as even i know that breathing once in someone mouth, does not start them breathing again, and i have done a first aid course and passed

i was there with my son NOT you,

Is that what you told the doctors in the hospital as well? I don't think you realised there would be several of us on this thread with medical qualifications and experience that would read into all the holes in the scenario we were presented with. You might have been there with your son but you still believe you are the one that knows better than the medical professionals.

lol yup was thinkin same bet shes regretin startin this thread big time:roll:

you dont know everything, as even i know that breathing once in someone mouth, does not start them breathing again, and i have done a first aid course and passed


i did not breath in to his mouth as it mouth to mouth it was more of a blow to his face/ mouth, wich i was told i DID the right thing!

lol yup was thinkin same bet shes regretin startin this thread big time:roll:


im not regretting starting it at all, everyone is entitled to there own opinion.

im not regretting starting it at all.

Well, I would be if I were you.

I don't know many people who put their child's life in danger by not following medical advice and then post to brag about their actions.

Mind you, I wasn't there, you were. :roll:

Well, I would be if I were you.

I don't know many people who put their child's life in danger by not following medical advice and then post to brag about their actions.

Mind you, I wasn't there, you were. :roll:

ooh arnt u a scary cow,

and i did not put his life in danger if he was to be sent home just waiting to see registrar

I was going to answer the OP but the other members of the forum have answered all the points I was going to make.

Thank you dan_999uk- I'm not trying to state that my sister was right and any other course of action was wrong, I'm simply trying to say that with a child that's not breathing the only safe way of transporting is in an ambulance if there is nobody other than the driver to be performing CPR.

I'm not trying to cast doubt on it either - I want to stress what a difficult decision it is to make :)

i did not breath in to his mouth as it mouth to mouth it was more of a blow to his face/ mouth, wich i was told i DID the right thing!

you said you blew into his mouth(sorry moth)
See post 18

and I quote
"i can ashore you he has stopped breathing he'd gone a gray/white color and 4rt he was asleep so i tryed to wake him and he could not wake so i blow in his moth and he opened his eyes screaming"

I think the Childrens hospital are amazing, yes waiting can be a drag but I'd wait in there no matter what, the staff there have saved 2 of my childrens lives following very serious illnesses and I have nothing but praise for them.

just wanted to add, glad your little uns better anyway!

ooh arnt u a scary cow,


I like to think so - thanks for noticing. :)

and i did not put his life in danger if he was to be sent home just waiting to see registrar

Of course you're right; seeing the registrar must have been a mere formality. It's well known within the NHS that they most of a registrar's time is spent discharging patients that are certain not to need further treatment.

:roll:

i just want to say im glad your little one is feeling better.

I like to think so - thanks for noticing. :)



Of course you're right; seeing the registrar must have been a mere formality. It's well known within the NHS that they most of a registrar's time is spent discharging patients that are certain not to need further treatment.

:roll:

Somehow Kristian....I think the sentiment behind your post will be completely missed by the OP :hihi:

sorry you have had a bad experience with the children's a&e, i personally cannot praise them enough, last year my daughter was diagnosed by my GP as having an allergic reaction, i took her to a&e as i knew something was wrong, she ended up on intravenous anti-bio tics on a ward due to her having Scolded skin syndrome (her skin was burnt by staphylococcus toxins) this year, the week before Christmas my daugher had a meningitis looking bruise red rash (it didn't fade with a tumbler pressed against it) and her ankle was swollen around the rash, she also had a lot of pain in her legs, my GP diagnosed an allergic reaction again, i wasn't happy with this diagnosis as the GP failed to examine my daughter, within a few hours she was unable to walk, i rushed her to children's a&e where they gave her a 2 hour looking over and diagnosed her with Henoch Schonlein Purpura, due to this she had protein in her urine, which could have sent her into kidney failure.....hence i have since changed my GP

i did not breath in to his mouth as it mouth to mouth it was more of a blow to his face/ mouth, wich i was told i DID the right thing!

who told you that you had done the right thing, the imaginary voice in your head :loopy:

i can ashore you he has stopped breathing he'd gone a gray/white color and 4rt he was asleep so i tryed to wake him and he could not wake so i blow in his moth and he opened his eyes screaming

but you told me earlier you didnt blow in his mouth, please make up your bloody mind :loopy:

omg
give the op a break-
its a scary situation to be in. all that matters is the child is ok

New Year's Eve - probably short staffed - a child who was judged by experts to be in no need of immediate treatment - and the OP walks out because they've had to wait for 4 hours!! Unbelievable.

My ma-in-law was admitted to the Hallamshire on New Year's Eve - the ambulance got us there at 5.40pm. It was about 9.30pm before she got onto the Assessment ward. It was 7.00am on New Year's Day before the first doctor saw her. I waited and saw the Consultant at around 10.40am and finally arrived home at just after 11.00am. I make that a wait of around 17 hours.

She wasn't suffering from an accident or illness, just extremely confused and disorientated, and had been for some weeks. The hospital was short-staffed and busy. I'm just grateful that there was somebody there to help her, and all the nurses and doctors weren't out celebrating New Year.

If I was a parent I don't think I could just walk out without being absolutely sure that it was OK to go and without knowing if any follow up treatment was needed.

omg
give the op a break-
its a scary situation to be in. all that matters is the child is ok

everyone is allowed their own opinion, but for the op to come on here slating the childrens hospital is wrong.
i have nothing but praise and so have alot of people for the hospital if you have read my posts, everyone there do a excellent job

i agree sch is one of the best i have been to.
i myself have waited MONTHS in hospitals just to hear my child was ok, i would NEVER leave until given the all clear
i just think the child is ok- thats all that matters really

I made a complaint against the Children's for their offhand disregard for patients. My child was in triage when a non-medical staff member opened the door to say goodnight to the nurse. The triage room was then in full sight of the waiting room.

The complaint was upheld and I received formal apologies and assurance that new policies were in place.

I have to say, the persons involved were 'mature' and I think this Victorian attitude will cease when they retire as the younger staff are great with kids.

i was in children's hospital with my son new yrs eve from 11pm-3am(walked out)

my son had a mild asthma attack and stopped breathing for 2-3mins. so i tuck him to the hospital, from 11pm -12.34am to be seen then my son was refused to have an asthma inhaler because he did not need it ,his chest was clear, but from from having Asthma myself i know you dont need to be wheezing to need an inhaler.



the purpose of reliever inhalers is to reduce bronchospasm and wheeze

whatin your expert opinion the necessity for the adminstration of a prescription only drug licenced primarily to relieve bronchopam and wheeze when there is no bronchospasm or wheeze?

the fact that when my son had stopped breathing how long i was waiting is ridiculous!!


was your son in respiratory arrest on arrivla at the hospital?

so far there is no proof other than your assertion that your son stopped breathing...

it's amazing how many calls to theambulance service are forpeople who are 'not breathing' or whose 'heart has stopped' when no such thing actually occured ...

i understand that some people need to be seen asap, but when you was the second person in the hospital (it was completely empty) and about 15 other people came in after you and got seen faster one of them been a drunk 12yr old, it takes the ****!

hmm conscious and breathing ABCs OK child with a 'mild asthma attack' ( despite the spurious suggestion from lay witnesses of a prolonged respiratoey arrest ) vs. someone who has potential ABC problems and although 'drunk' in the eyes of an ill informed lay person , needs to be assessed for serious head injuries etc ...

But the immediate care in an ambulance could have been better than a journey in a car even though there would have been a delay , concerned that you have taken a child home who stopped breathing for 3 minites


who alledgedly stopped breathing for '3 minutes' ...

When my niece stopped breathing with croup in the middle of the night when she was tiny my sister and bro in law took the decision to drive her to the hospital themselves rather than call an ambulance because they live 9 miles from the nearest emergency department, which also happens to be the local ambulance station (so they would be waiting a fair while for an ambulance) and there were 2 adults, both of whom could drive and both of whom are qualified first aiders who had both passed a neonatal and baby resuscitation course just before my niece was born. This means that there was one adult going hell for leather and not caring if they got pulled by the police or snapped by a camera whilst the other was performing resuscitation in the back on my niece.



sort of forgets the following facts

1. an Ambulance station is a garage - most of the time they are empty especially those stations with one or 2 a+E vehicles allocated to them

2. just because you live 9 miles from an ambulance station doesn't mean there isn't a high priority standby point just round the corner ( e.g. i live in Normanton W yorks , the closest Ambulance statiosn are Ponefract, Wakefield, or castleford , however in Normanton there areat least 3 standby points in the deployment map and the community first responder scheme

3. 'driving hell for leather' is not neccessarily the best answer ...

4. emergency services drivers undertake extensive training and are required to demonstrate competence before being allowed to drive under emergency conditions ( the ambulance service drivingcourse is 3 weeks as the police 'response' course , police advanced response drivers have up to 7 weeks of training but this includespursuit and TPAC etc)

5. even with flashing blue lights and noise , the emergency service driver is still expected to drive within thebounds ofwhat is considered acceptable ( i.e. neither careless nor reckless) even if they do claim exemptions

6. with the Road Safety Act there is the provision for the speed exemption tobe removed from theexemptions that may beclaimed by eligble classes of vehicles or journey unless specific instruction has been recieved.

7. emergency drives place many people at risk, the risk must justify the outcome

I'm surprised this thread hasn't been closed.:huh:

I think that the Children’s do a fantastic job. Our eldest child was admitted there when he was 18 months with pneumonia. As in most hospitals, the Children's seems understaffed. Despite this though, they still looked after my young one as well as giving reassurance to my wife and I. All this whilst the nurses and doctors were on a very low ebb as one of the long stay patients had just died.

I can, to an extent, understand the OP’s frustration. Hospitals are the places where you need to be when you are ill. Once better though, all you want is to get out of the hospital environment to normality. On the fourth day of my son being in hospital, the doctors advised that, all being well, he would be back home in the morning. When the morning did come there was then all the waiting for the pharmacy and the doctor to allow us home. It was about four in the afternoon before we walked out of the main entrance.

It seems a bit selfish but during the wait to be discharged, we forgot about the fact that these doctors and nurses still have very sick patients and worried relatives to look after.

We’ve had other visits to the children’s and have even had cause to question a particular policy about diagnosis of urinary tract infections. I even discussed this policy with the consultant looking after my daughter and got an answer that I was/am not happy with. However, the doctors, nurses and consultants are highly trained and know a lot more than me so I’ve let it lie.

All in all though, the Children’s and its staff gets a :thumbsup: from me. I am pleased that I live in a city with such an excellent facility.

ooh arnt u a scary cow,

and i did not put his life in danger if he was to be sent home just waiting to see registrar

Think abusive sentences like your first one here shows that you're feeling the lack of empathy given to you and your comment "scary cow" is totally out of line

"just waiting to see registrar" - these people are qualified Dr's, probably more qualified than the GP whom you see knows everything medical.

The registrars, house officers and Consultants work very, very hard and if you knew the amount of patients they have to see on a daily basis I think you'd have a bit more respect for the knowledge they have attained which deems them more qualified than yourself to decide when to take your child away from medical care or do you have a crystal ball:roll:

sort of forgets the following facts

1. an Ambulance station is a garage - most of the time they are empty especially those stations with one or 2 a+E vehicles allocated to them

2. just because you live 9 miles from an ambulance station doesn't mean there isn't a high priority standby point just round the corner ( e.g. i live in Normanton W yorks , the closest Ambulance statiosn are Ponefract, Wakefield, or castleford , however in Normanton there areat least 3 standby points in the deployment map and the community first responder scheme

3. 'driving hell for leather' is not neccessarily the best answer ...

4. emergency services drivers undertake extensive training and are required to demonstrate competence before being allowed to drive under emergency conditions ( the ambulance service drivingcourse is 3 weeks as the police 'response' course , police advanced response drivers have up to 7 weeks of training but this includespursuit and TPAC etc)

5. even with flashing blue lights and noise , the emergency service driver is still expected to drive within thebounds ofwhat is considered acceptable ( i.e. neither careless nor reckless) even if they do claim exemptions

6. with the Road Safety Act there is the provision for the speed exemption tobe removed from theexemptions that may beclaimed by eligble classes of vehicles or journey unless specific instruction has been recieved.

7. emergency drives place many people at risk, the risk must justify the outcome

In this instance the people concerned live in a village high up on moors with nothing between them and the city 9 miles away and nobody in their right minds would put vehicles at a standby point in open countryside with no people nearby. I'm not going to justify their actions, that was not the purpose of posting the information. The aim was to illustrate the difference between what happens when a child 'stops breathing' but starts again after 3 minutes when you blow on their face and what happens when a baby really does stop breathing.

[QUOTE=happylady;2989651]Think abusive sentences like your first one here shows that you're feeling the lack of empathy given to you and your comment "scary cow" is totally out of line
[QUOTE]



but people as good as saying this person is a bad parent is not "totally out of line"?

slagging them off for going out of hospital with out an official say so, we dont fully know what the person was going though.

but to be honest if i was told my child should be okay to go home and i was still waiting to see a registrar i would have gone home too, even if my child had stopped breathing or not.


i think you need to have a good read and see that a lot of people are out of line with some things they have said.

[QUOTE=happylady;2989651]Think abusive sentences like your first one here shows that you're feeling the lack of empathy given to you and your comment "scary cow" is totally out of line
[QUOTE]

but people as good as saying this person is a bad parent is not "totally out of line"?



unfortuantely we have a classic case of 'entitlement' britain here ...

someone who believes that becasue they are 'entitled' toa service is shoudl be organised around them


slagging them off for going out of hospital with out an official say so, we dont fully know what the person was going though.


we have been presented a story full of contradictions

at one far corner of the canvas we have someone who panniced and is now making things up to feel better aobut using the Emergency Department

at another far corner ofthe canvass we have someone who has a factitious illness disorder

at another far corner of the canvas we have sonmeone who has taken a potentially critically ill child out of hospital against medical advice.


but to be honest if i was told my child should be okay to go home and i was still waiting to see a registrar i would have gone home too, even if my child had stopped breathing or not.


despite the fact that until a patient has been seen by a registrar, staff specialist or consultant they have not been seen by a Doctor who is deemed trained in the relevant speciality as FY1 and FY2 doctors are still gaining basic competencies to practice safely and indepdently as a Dcotor and ST1 and ST2 ( and GP registrars whether on hospital or Primary care placement) doctors are gaining core competencies for their specialist area of practice , the fact a junior was unahappy to discharge the patient suggests at least in part in the potential seriousness of the condition in question.

the fact that when my son had stopped breathing how long i was waiting is ridiculous!!

Did he really stop breathing for 2 or 3 minutes or did it just seem like that? The fact that he had been seen by a Doctor who had said it was fine to go home and he was breathng well enough for you to take him there = an over-reaction.

I have a congenital bone condition and spent much of the first 16 yars of my life at the childrens. My eldest daughter has inherited the condition and is seeing her consultant along with my youngest daughter (for her to start the diagnosis path) at the end of the month. Not only are we very lucky to have a dedicated childrens hospital in this city, we are also lucky to have many consultants like the Proff who sees my girls who are considered to be the top guys in the field.

Yes sometimes you have to wait a while but thank god you are in a nicer envronment than if there was no childrens and you were sat with with a poorly/distressed baby or child in A & E at the NGH.

I understand my girls condition becuase I have lived with it all my life (I also have asthma so have some experience of that) but I would never consider myself to know better than the qualified staff.
When DD was 7 weeks old I thought she had a bit of a cold but decided to get her checked out. The GP sent us straight to the SCH she had broncilitus and needed little oxygen and was kept in for 6 days. The staff was wonderful but it proves my point that as parents we don't always know best

Think abusive sentences like your first one here shows that you're feeling the lack of empathy given to you and your comment "scary cow" is totally out of line




but people as good as saying this person is a bad parent is not "totally out of line"?

slagging them off for going out of hospital with out an official say so, we dont fully know what the person was going though.

but to be honest if i was told my child should be okay to go home and i was still waiting to see a registrar i would have gone home too, even if my child had stopped breathing or not.


i think you need to have a good read and see that a lot of people are out of line with some things they have said.
I do think the way the OP spoke to Kristian was out of line, and I personally think that, yes, the op was out of line to take the child out of A&E without waiting for the full OK from the docs. However foolish it may seem to the rest of us, it's, her child her choice, on the second count.

[QUOTE=happylady;2989651]Think abusive sentences like your first one here shows that you're feeling the lack of empathy given to you and your comment "scary cow" is totally out of line
[QUOTE]



but people as good as saying this person is a bad parent is not "totally out of line"?

slagging them off for going out of hospital with out an official say so, we dont fully know what the person was going though.

but to be honest if i was told my child should be okay to go home and i was still waiting to see a registrar i would have gone home too, even if my child had stopped breathing or not.


i think you need to have a good read and see that a lot of people are out of line with some things they have said.

I have had a good read at what people are saying. No-one has questioned her parenting skills just her decision to leave when she did. By the OP putting her problem on the forum it is then open for people to comment on what happened.

If she has a problem with the hospital I do think she should take it up with them and not go slagging SCH off. I, like most people who have given their view, are very aware of the excellent service provided by the Trust especially during the festive period when the staff there are working at a time when the rest of us are able to take holidays.

Had to pay a visit there myself with the little one last week. The staff and service were first class :thumbsup:, though the floor in the reception/waiting area was less than clean. :suspect:

I do think the way the OP spoke to Kristian was out of line, and I personally think that, yes, the op was out of line to take the child out of A&E without waiting for the full OK from the docs. However foolish it may seem to the rest of us, it's, her child her choice, on the second count.

not really kristian was been scary in my opinion.

not really kristian was been scary in my opinion.

What was scary about his post? :confused:

not really kristian was been scary in my opinion.

yes i would like to know what was scary in kristian post

The SCH saved my 5 week old daughter a year ago this week. There just great.

I am a student and 4 of my best mates are medics.

Try working a day in thier shoes, the pressure, the abuse they get from people they want to help, the long hours and they still all SMILE!

i dont know how they do it but i have nothing but respect for the hospital staff - doctors, nurses or receptionists.

I do, however, understand your fears for your child. But i know that, if anything were to happen again, they would be there, they would help and they would go the extra mile every time

Peter hughes - Spot on! People wouldn't be able to cope doing the job a nurse, doctor, or anyone who works in a hosp for that matter! They deserve all the praise they can take. And not to be put down! If they wern't at work, and took the night off for a night out just like most of sheffield had. Then everyone would be complaining. They're there, doing their job, and people still complain!!!!

not read all post but all i have for SHEFFIELD CHILDRENS HOSPITAL IS A LOT OF RESPECT AND THANKSi have 6 children and 4 nethews all have being to the hospital at some point in there life one with cf cystic fibrousious (i think thats how to spell it ) and i have never had any reason to be upset from there treatment.one reason i moved to sheffield was to be very close to this hospital.

I am a student and 4 of my best mates are medics.

Try working a day in thier shoes, the pressure, the abuse they get from people they want to help, the long hours and they still all SMILE!

i dont know how they do it but i have nothing but respect for the hospital staff - doctors, nurses or receptionists.

I do, however, understand your fears for your child. But i know that, if anything were to happen again, they would be there, they would help and they would go the extra mile every time

Peter, well said. As an employee of SCH it is a lovely place to work and the people do all have a smile despite everyone from the porters to the Consultants having a major workload. As a secretary we deal with loads of calls from parents and everyone is dealt with with care. Most of the secretaries I work with have children and we all understand how stressed parents are when their child is ill in whatever way. Unfortunately, people find it easy to criticise others and don't realise the pressure people are under who work there.

in april last year my 4 year old son jumped off a small trampoline and landed on a rake which impaled right through his foot. my first reaction was to get him straight to hospital so i pulled the rake out of his foot wrapped it in a towel and went straight to the childrens (it never even entered my head to ring an ambulance). when we got to the childrens they put us into a side ward where we were sat for over 2 hours before anyone even assesed him. when the doctor spoke to us after he assesed him they were more intrested in giving me a lecture on how i should have left the rake in his foot and called an ambulance. he needed to have an operation on it to clean it out so infection did'nt set in, we arrived at the hospital at around 5.30pm he was eventually took to theatre around 1.30am, while we was sat in the side ward waiting to be assesed a boy was fetched in with a broken arm, within an hour and half he had been assesed and taken to theatre. if you ask me your face has got to fit! rant over.

in april last year my 4 year old son jumped off a small trampoline and landed on a rake which impaled right through his foot. my first reaction was to get him straight to hospital so i pulled the rake out of his foot wrapped it in a towel and went straight to the childrens (it never even entered my head to ring an ambulance). when we got to the childrens they put us into a side ward where we were sat for over 2 hours before anyone even assesed him. when the doctor spoke to us after he assesed him they were more intrested in giving me a lecture on how i should have left the rake in his foot and called an ambulance. he needed to have an operation on it to clean it out so infection did'nt set in, we arrived at the hospital at around 5.30pm he was eventually took to theatre around 1.30am, while we was sat in the side ward waiting to be assesed a boy was fetched in with a broken arm, within an hour and half he had been assesed and taken to theatre. if you ask me your face has got to fit! rant over.


You're really pretty dim if you can't see that a broken arm is more urgent than a punctured foot.

if you ask me your face has got to fit! rant over.

I find the quote above absolutely staggering!
Surely no-one actually believes BS like that?! It's a children's hospital for gawds sake! (although it would still be equally as unbelievable if it was being uttered about an adult A&E)

You're really pretty dim if you can't see that a broken arm is more urgent than a punctured foot.

if it's a punctured foot, and the item is still in situ, then it's marginally less serious. If the object is not in situ, then as a first-aider, I have to say there is potential for the "patient" to "bleed-out". making it DARN serious.

One of the first rules in first aid is that if you have a penetrating injury, and the item is in situ, you are told to leave it in situ, because you cannot see inside the "patient", and don't know what blood vessels that the object is possibly plugging. if the item is removed in the A&E/ operating theatre, there's a better chance of stopping the bleeding, if it did hit any major blood vessels or getting many units of blood into the patient if there is significant blood loss.

In fact as I understand it, that's what killed Steve Irwin, the crocodile-hunter man:- the stingray barb penetrated his chest, and he pulled it out, "un-sealing" the wound, and he bled-out. I can't say for certain if he would have survived had he left it in situ, but the extra time given, by leaving the barb in situ, might have improved his chances of survival significantly.

PT.
Purely from a pedantic medical point of view here, but a penetrating foot injury is much less serious than a penetrating chest/abdomen injury. Pulling something (like a rake...penetration at best a few cm?) out of your foot, compared to pulling, say a knife stuck 2 inches inside your liver or spleen, is a world apart. You'd be incredibly unlucky to 'bleed out' from such an injury on your foot.
However the first aid advice you give is sound! Best to let someone else pull the thing out, no mater where it is!
As for Mr Irwin. Rumour has it that the barb penetrated his heart, which although pulling it out undoubtedly made him die quicker, unless he had emergency care within 30 mins or so he was more than likely a goner anyway :-(

Many moons ago, when my son was 2, he was admitted to the Childrens suffering from thrombosis. (it took them well over 24 hours to diagnose him and he was only diagnosed after they specifically called in someone on a Sunday afternoon to give him an ultra sound scan)

I lived in the hospital for over 2 weeks, and had to go back daily for 2 months for blood tests - I used to take him for the blood test in the morning, ring back in the afternoon, and they would tell me how much Warfarin to give him in accordance with the blood 'thickness'.

This was way before the hospital building was extended like it is now.

The ward my son had to go to every day was Ward 3 (I think) and opposite that, was Ward 4. (or vice versa, I forget which way round it was)

The children on that ward were being treated for cancer and leukaemia.

I used to find it annoying as anything to have to hang around for hours for the right person to come and take my sons blood samples every day, but my God, I used to thank my lucky stars that I wasn't taking him to the ward opposite.

I can understand the OPs reaction, but perhaps at the time of posting she/he was still wound up at the seemingly long wait, but hopefully with hindsight, they can realise that they were very lucky to be able to take their child home that night.

Not every parent is so fortunate.

i remember going to the childrens a while ago with my daughter, she is diabetic and her sugar levels was reading high (over 30) and she was releasing ketones in her urine.
when to get assessed and whip straight through to a and e, where one woman started complaining as she had been waiting 3 hours to see a doctor.
my daughter was taken to a room, where they took her sugars and hooked her onto a drip to lower the sugar levels, then left us for 30 minutes, in which time i went to phone her father as we are separted.
the woman i mentioned came out to me and started having a go at me, because in her eyes i had queue jump, i tried explaining that my daughter had a serious medical problem, but she wasnt listening to me. when i went back to the room my daughter was sat up in bed, then she went unconscious and started fitting.
loads of nurses came rushing in, moved her to a open area in front of the nurse station and she was put on 5 mins observation she was put on a heart monitior and a breathing monitior and was kept on woken up to stop her slipping into a coma.
then the woman who had gobbed me earlier walked through with her child, took one look at mine and said sorry for having at go at me.
i waited for a diabetic doctor to be called in to see my daughter and we ended up on intensive care for the night.

i have nothing nasty to say about the childrens as they have saved my daughter life 4 times since she has been diabetic and i think they all do a brilliant job :D


Well said. I hope that put her back in her box.

Following me being born, my mum and dad had to wait for the registrar to come and see her (and little me) before being discharged from the maternity ward - pretty routine as both me and my mum seemed fine.... a few hours later I was in Manchester Childrens Hospital (I was born in Blackpool) having emergency surgery which was followed by a rather prolonged period in their Special Care Baby Unit.

My mum waited to see the registrar, and I very glad she did.

The knowledge and skill of that doctor and his suspicion that something was wrong undoubtly saved my life. I have nothing but the highest regard for the NHS and it's staff.

if it's a punctured foot, and the item is still in situ, then it's marginally less serious. If the object is not in situ, then as a first-aider, I have to say there is potential for the "patient" to "bleed-out". making it DARN serious.

One of the first rules in first aid is that if you have a penetrating injury, and the item is in situ, you are told to leave it in situ, because you cannot see inside the "patient", and don't know what blood vessels that the object is possibly plugging. if the item is removed in the A&E/ operating theatre, there's a better chance of stopping the bleeding, if it did hit any major blood vessels or getting many units of blood into the patient if there is significant blood loss.

In fact as I understand it, that's what killed Steve Irwin, the crocodile-hunter man:- the stingray barb penetrated his chest, and he pulled it out, "un-sealing" the wound, and he bled-out. I can't say for certain if he would have survived had he left it in situ, but the extra time given, by leaving the barb in situ, might have improved his chances of survival significantly.


as a Registered Nurse working in emergency care, An Ambulance Attendant and First Aid assessor I agree with what plain talker has said

a wound that requires exploration, irrgation and closure is an annoyance to it;s victim if there isn't a significant neurovascular injury, however, a broken bone can be a limb threatening , potentially permanently disabling problem ...

and in terms of 'not assessed for two hours' ... in a previous post - are you honestly saying that no one other than the receptionist spoke to you for 2 hours?

or are you in fact forgetting that that the initial assessment / triage assessment undertaken by a Registered Nurse is a brief assessment and examination to rule in / rule out a number of significant factors and determine the clinical priority of the case....

so what are you complaining about then?

my thoughts exactly :hihi:

Not had chance to read through all of this thread but will try to. However I get the general arguments.
Waiting in a hospital however mild an injury or illness is never good.
I have not been on the forum for a month or two because I have spent most of my time at the Children's hospital myself. My youngest is still on the wards. He has a number of problems and is only 6 months old. Since October we have had to rush him into the Childrens A and E six or seven times and he has stayed either in intensive care or on the wards for about a month in total.
I have nothing but praise for the wonderful staff, especially the nurses who have dealt with my son and continue to do so. On one of the occasions we went it was life threatening.
They have a tough job to do. I have not been happy with some of the doctors. It is not nice waiting round.
But any discussion involving a child's care and health is always going to be emotive.
Perhaps we should all remember that.

I havnt read all the posts here and dont work at the kids hospital but everyone gets triaged and asthma and diabetes especially a ketotic coma, would be prioritised over some of the other crap that clogs up a&E. There is something in this story that is not being told.
Routine management of any asthma attack attending hospital would be to wait for a variable length of time to see if symptoms recur. Asthma kills many many people each year and A&E are not goign to take any case lightly. You should have waited pal.

Personally anyone shouts or sounds of at me at work usually gets put to the back of the queue. it is a bad precedent to see people in order according to who shouts the most.

I have nothing but praise for SCH, without them and the numerous departments within the hospital, including ICU, my son would not be with us.
He's endured years of chemo and had two BMT.
From the first day we entered A&E just over six years ago he's received nothing but the best care, even if it has involved sitting and waiting for anything up to 8 hrs +.
Just because you cannot see things happening does not mean that nothing is happening.

the first thing i want to say is i am not pretty dim, i am in no way medeically trained or knowledged so i would'nt have known a break is more serious than a puncture wound and there was no way i could have stayed on the garden with him with the rake in his foot while we waited for an ambulance (like i said i never even thought about calling an ambulance, my first thought was to get him to hospital) and yes it was just short of a couple of hours before he even got assesed, we went into a&e then the receptionist sent us straight to the ward (think it was caus i was in a state) then a male nurse came through to asses him.

the first thing i want to say is i am not pretty dim, i am in no way medeically trained or knowledged so i would'nt have known a break is more serious than a puncture wound

But the triage staff ARE medically trained. They know how to prioritise cases, but you posted on here that it was unfair that the child with a broken arm went first. You didn't seem to think that the trained professionals' judgement might be better than yours.

But the triage staff ARE medically trained. They know how to prioritise cases, but you posted on here that it was unfair that the child with a broken arm went first. You didn't seem to think that the trained professionals' judgement might be better than yours.

They can get it wrong though. My sister went to A nd E a few years back with a painful arm injury suffered during gym class. The nurse dismissed her matter of factly and sent her home saying an x-ray wasnt needed (why a doctor never saw my sister I dont know) which meant they couldnt be arsed to call who was on call. Anyway after a sleepless night my sister had an x-ray and lo and behold the arm was broken.

Taught me not to take everything told to me by medical staff as gospel, much like the woman who got repeatedly told she had period pain when she had a dodgy ovary (i forget the medical term, polycystic maybe). She only got treated after reviewing her symptoms online and challenging her doctor.

the first thing i want to say is i am not pretty dim, i am in no way medeically trained or knowledged so i would'nt have known a break is more serious than a puncture wound and there was no way i could have stayed on the garden with him with the rake in his foot while we waited for an ambulance (like i said i never even thought about calling an ambulance, my first thought was to get him to hospital) and yes it was just short of a couple of hours before he even got assesed, we went into a&e then the receptionist sent us straight to the ward (think it was caus i was in a state) then a male nurse came through to asses him.


i still it very hard if not impossible to beleive thaqt your not assessed for several hours, especially given one of the slightly less pointless ( in that it has caused a lot of trusts to put money into emergency care ) targets of the bliar government was the Discharged or admitted in 4 hours through A+E ...

But the triage staff ARE medically trained.


triage assessment may be undertaken by someone who is medically trained (i.e. a Doctor ) it WILL be undertaken aby someone with Emergency care skills and experience ( this includes Nurses and Paramedics as well as Doctors )



They know how to prioritise cases, but you posted on here that it was unfair that the child with a broken arm went first. You didn't seem to think that the trained professionals' judgement might be better than yours.

an opinion based in ignorance , which is typical of the majority of the pointless complaints that waste NHS money

I can't speak highly enough about the Sheffield Children's hospital.I have taken my three children there on numerous occasions, over the years, mainly for treatment for asthma. The staff have always been excellent, especially understanding if I've turned up in the middle of the night, tired and worried about my children. I have been made as comfortable as possible, fetched drinks etc.

The staff are highly experienced and know full well how to prioritise the most urgent cases, the least we can do is be patient with what can be a very long wait. The fact that we are in the hospital is enough to reassure me that all is being done which can be done.We are very lucky to have a Children's hospital, long may their work continue.

Perhaps this topic should be closed down now. The OP hasn't been seen on this one for ages now and I think we all agree that the hospital do a great job.

triage assessment may be undertaken by someone who is medically trained (i.e. a Doctor ) it WILL be undertaken aby someone with Emergency care skills and experience ( this includes Nurses and Paramedics as well as Doctors )



I realised when I was drifting off to sleep that I should probably have used another term to describe the training, and was going to edit it the next day but forgot. :blush:

If it had been my child stop breathing wherever I might be I'd dial 999. You say your child had stopped breathing, if that is so then I am sure the staff at the SCH would have seen to your child straightaway.

As a member of staff of SCH I am pleased to see so many positive responses to the service that SCH provide. Our Consultants,doctors and nursing staff are second to none and as a member of the admin department even our staff are very caring people and do out utmost to help.

As a parent I would not have taken my child away without the consent of a Dr HOWEVER LONG I HAD TO WAIT. If you feel so strongly about it rather than criticising on the forum why not write to the Pals Manager at Sheffield who I am sure would like to hear your thoughts.



Thank you ,,, I think your all wonderful members of staff!!!

My child became very ill a few years ago and I remember having to wait for ages too. I took him into hospital around 3 times in one week for the same condition. His condition deteriorated soo much upon the third time, he was admitted for over a week with suspected meningitis and had to have fluid from his spine taken via a needle..... and remained unconscious for the first 3 days, it was awful as he was only 4 at the time. He made a good recovery and is fine now.

I dont blame the staff there for keeping me waiting for a couple of hours as we were always seen by a triage nurse fairly quickly to assertain his condition, and I always followed the advice given earlier by Doctors etc. I remember being there for nearly 4 hours on one occassion. I would do it again if I had beacuse in the end he got the treatment he needed, with qualified staff around.
Sometimes issues cant be detected earlier or not seen as detremental. I know people that have lost young children through very serious and often initial simple symptoms and the thought of someone being prioritised before me always makes me think of this............

blowing in his mouth (moth?) wasn't CPR then? (see your post 18 in the thread, page 1 )


a quick blow in the mouth is hardly cpr

a quick blow in the mouth is hardly cpr

so what would you have called it bobgirlsnake

a quick blow in the mouth is shocking them in to breathing,
cpr is only when you push down on the chest as well.

why dont you all just stop trying to make bobgirlsnake out to be this bad person??
she thought she did the right thing the child it okay now, why dont you all let it drop now??!?

I had to take my daughter to the Children's last night. I cannot praise them enough!

We got there at ten past seven, waited only 10 minutes for the triage nurse to assess her, then we were taken immediately into a room where she was hooked up to an ecg. They monitored her for ten minutes then the doctor came in to examine her.

The staff were fantastic and even though it was quite busy they sorted my daughter out straight away! We were out of the hospital before half past eight!

They are amazing!!!


Thankyou to all the staff there, you are wonderful!

cpr is only when you push down on the chest as well.



CPR stands for cardio-pulmonary resusitation. This means that you use chest compressions (the cardio part) to pump blood arround the body, and give mouth to mouth breaths (the pulmonary part) to deliver oxygen to the lungs in order for it to be passed naround the body in the bloodstrem.

It is sometimes the case that chest compressions are not needed when mouth to mouth is (in the case of a respiritory arrest where the child still has adequate cardiac function), but this is very unlikely in an out of hospiatal arrest. as in a child crdiac arrest will very quickly follow respiratory arrest.

In the situation described by the OP ie, her child had stopped breathing for 2-3 minutes, we are looking at a full cardio-respiratory arrest, and a blow in the mouth would not have resolved that. In fact, sadly, full CPR would be unlikely to resolve that and as I said previously there would have been very dire consequences for that child if what the OP had said was true.

This is why people have taken issue with what she said, because she slagged off the emergency department, despite admitting that she ignored medical advice and was obviously stretching the truth somewhat anyway.

why dont you all just stop trying to make bobgirlsnake out to be this bad person??
she thought she did the right thing the child it okay now, why dont you all let it drop now??!?


She put herself in it probably thinking people were going to sympathise with her. She would have been better taking her complaint to the hospital rather than bringing to the forum's attention - but I do agree with you I think this one has been done to death now.

I agree- this thread has obviously run its course.

Closing.