"Our trust in healthcare professionals is now strained."

We had to take our daughter t the paediatric assessment unit in Aberdeen children’s hospital at night, due to having 20+ clusters of seizures in that day; that are worsening & progressive. She was already assessed for having 12-14 seizure episodes a couple of days before this. We were promptly taken through to the ward upon arrival. Put into triage 5 room by a nurse, that had bright lights, very hot and no ventilation.

About 5 hours later, a speciality 1 doctor came to take bloods from my daughters foot, they attempted the toe but failed and the nurse said they were using too much paraffin on her left big toe as the tube was slipping, combined with my daughter clenching her toes made it very tricky - the doctor was great with her, kept her calm and was empathetic towards her. She tolerated it much better than we all expected and said how great she was doing, however the doctor was failing to get sufficient drops of blood from the toe and moved to her heel on the opposite foot. The doctor unfortunately did the same again, using too much paraffin which made the tube slip on her foot but my daughter was still doing great, considering she had 25 episodes of seizures, in a very hot room, strange place and incredibly tired and exhausted.

The nurse who admitted us on arrival and took my daughters' first set of observations decided to take over as my baby’s foot was bleeding and the blood test was needed (totally understandable). However this is where my babies discomfort, and ours as parents changed. The nurse used such pressure and force to get the blood from her heel that she bent her right foot back so far that her toes were in line with her shin of her lower half of her leg. My baby was absolutely distraught and screaming, in what very much so seemed like a lot of pain. 

My daughter clearly displayed better than expected behaviour when having her toe and heel cut two times by the doctor and blood drawn by them, she was curious to see what was happening and we managed a little distraction with rattles and sucrose drops, and without this awfully distressing response. Nor did they need to bend her foot back so far. Nor did we experience this when having bloods taken multiple times for blood sugars, or the heel prick test when in NICU for 6 days when first born.

I stated to the nurse than they were hurting my daughter and they ignored me, they also ignored how distraught my daughter was. Zero empathy to an already very unpleasant situation we were in with worry about our daughter, and how she had been kept awake in horrible conditions. How she’d been taken up to hospital, for seizures with an unknown cause outside of the usual reasons with babies, and due to this I was a bit worried about putting her through more but my daughter was doing so well until it felt like this nurse brutally bent her foot back to obtain a blood sample. The nurse very clearly displayed their frustrations with the doctor who failed 2 attempts. Bloods were required because we couldn’t establish a cause, but brute force and zero empathy for a small baby was not necessary and only caused us as first time parents and my child undue distress and trauma. 

I would like this nurse to be retrained on patient ethics and empathy towards children and parents who were clearly concerned. Perhaps retraining on taking bloods from children who are curious and pleasant, as I would hate to think how a child would be treated if they put up any resistance. At no point were we even asked if someone in training could take the bloods - given these circumstances we would have probably declined to minimise the distress imposed on our child. 

I would like this to be dealt with so no other child has to endure this kind of treatment, and so that no parents have to watch their child be treated this way when not well. My daughter is still having progressive seizures, sleeping more than usual and lower appetite than usual, so it is likely we will need more investigation despite a normal ECG & EEG. So we would hope that we never have to experience this ever again because our trust in healthcare professionals is now strained.