"Son with Asthma"

My two year old son has had 6 admissions on the Outwood ward, East Surrey Hospital, over the last year. He has now been diagnosed with asthma and appears to need hospital treatment for viral infections. This obviously is very upsetting as parents, but we feel the medical staff really take the stress away from us in caring for our son so well.

Every admission has varied slightly in his need of care and we have been delighted with the level of care that he has received on each occasion. On one particularly stressful admission, my son appeared to be deteriorating very quickly at home. We had to call 111 in the middle of the night who sent a very questionable paramedic to us who reluctantly took us to A and E. His very casual handover to the nursing staff meant we were sent to the waiting area in reception. They had believed there SATs monitor wasn’t working correctly on our son, but actually it was. Once we were re-assessed an hour or so later, it transpired my son needed urgent care and was almost transferred to intensive care on three occasions. This was a very busy night for the medical team with three seriously poorly children in the A and E department, but the medical team at the hospital were absolutely fantastic. The paramedic’s actions had really shaken me, and they had reassured us we had absolutely done the right thing. We were cared for so well, ensuring we were being looked after too during a very frightening time. Following this particular admission, my son has outpatient consultant care. His admissions into hospital are also taken with great care knowing that my son can deteriorate very quickly.

Now when our son is ill, we feel confident that the medical team will look after him and help get him back running on his feet in no time. We are obviously very sad that our son is being admitted so regularly, but the stress is taken away be the extremely high level of care he receives. This goes for our experience in the Children's A and E departure, CAU and Outwood ward. We realise at times there can be some waiting around and the nursing staff may need to prioritise their time with patients who need more one on one care with children who are extremely poorly. When that child is your own (which unfortunately once was our son), you realise waiting around and holding back is a little easier, compared to what those poor parents are going through.