My 10-year-old son came down stairs after having been at the toilet he had quite clearly a lot of blood in his urine, he was also complaining of left sided flank pain. I called 111 who advised us to attend our local A&E department at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.
We did, and on arrival could see the department was busy. After just over an hour we were called in to the triage room where my son was sat on a chair and the nursing assistant did a set of jobs. The nurse was standing behind their computer and didn't even look up, they asked abruptly what had been happening, I explained the situation and directed their attention to the blood stained urine sample which I had brought, to which they retorted that urine doesn't have blood in it. I was taken aback and said well if you dip the urine we will know one way or another, they said they didn't have time for that and there were 24 urine in front of that to be dipped.
The nurse at no point examined or even looked at my child. They told me that I really should have gone to 111 which I said I had called and they had directed me here. They then went on to tell me that it was because out of hours had no appointments. At this point they basically said I could wait 10 hours if I wanted but they weren't letting anyone through the back unless they were cat 2 and above.
I sat back in the waiting room and contacted a friend who is a nurse for advice, she told me to go back and ask for his urine to be dipped. I did this and the nurse did dip urine, they came back and said to me that his urine did have blood in it but they had spoken to a Dr and they were happy that I could take him home and call my GP or 111 in the morning.
I was absolutely flabbergasted but by this time it was late, my son was distressed and I did want to go home so I did leave.
I contacted 111 the following morning, who were amazing, I was again asked to go to A&E but I refused and explained the situation the night before. I was promptly give an appointment at Out of Hours Forth Valley, where my son was seen by Kathryn, who was amazing and so good with him.
We were then admitted to children's ward, who were also all amazing, we saw a Dr called Ryan, who took bloods and ordered a renal ultrasound, he was concerned I had been allowed to take my son home without one the night prior. It turns out my son had a bruised kidney after banging it on a fairground ride on the Saturday night. Luckily they think this will settle and the bleeding should disappear with time.
He was discharged after on the Tuesday with follow-up with our GP. This scenario could have turned out very differently. I am so disappointed and upset at the treatment we had in A&E.
"My child's experience in hospital"
About: Forth Valley Royal Hospital / Accident & emergency Forth Valley Royal Hospital Accident & emergency FK5 4WR Forth Valley Royal Hospital / GP Out of Hours Forth Valley Royal Hospital GP Out of Hours FK5 4WR Forth Valley Royal Hospital / Paediatrics Forth Valley Royal Hospital Paediatrics FK5 4WR NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service) NHS 24 NHS 24 (111 service)
Posted by Gwil22 (as ),
Responses
See more responses from Karen Macfarlane
See more responses from Andrew McCall
See more responses from Andrew C
See more responses from Kirsty Meikle