"Unnecessary distress caused to our daughter"

Our 3 year old daughter has been unwell with sickness now for 3 days. Last night we decided to take her into A and E, as she was unable to keep anything down, and was very lethargic.

Whilst in A and E we found the Nurses and Doctors to be very attentive and thorough. They checked our daughter fully, and found her blood sugar to be low and mildly dehydrated, after 2 days of vomiting. They gave us fruit juice and glucose gel to re hydrate and bring up her blood sugar. Unfortunately our daughter was sick again, and then refused to take anymore fluids. The doctors decided to admit our daughter into the assessment unit for observation.

We arrived in the assessment unit at 11pm. The nurse came to see us and said that we needed to try get her to drink some more juice, as in A and E, to re hydrate our daughter and bring her blood sugar up. By this point our daughter was very tired and distressed with the whole situation. She just wanted to be left alone. The nurse explained if we didn't keep her awake and make her drink, then they would force her, with a syringe of juice into her mouth. We tried our best to do this but were unsuccessful. When the nurse returned to see us a few minutes later, our daughter was asleep. She again said we would have to keep her awake in order to force her to drink. Our daughter became very distressed when woken and point blank refused to take any fluid. The nurse got a syringe and whilst we held her, she forced some fluid into her mouth, which was spat back out immediately. The nurse then attempted to do the same again, with our daughter screaming in distress. This continued for about 10 minutes, with no success, and our daughter being extremely distressed, screaming and crying. The nurse then said quite abruptly, that our daughter would need an IV line for fluids, and that the doctor would come to see us.

When the doctor came to see us, our daughter was still very distressed. He did not introduce himself and proceeded to try examine our daughter. We again had to hold her while he attempted to take a throat and mouth swab. A blood sugar level was not checked at all while in the assessment unit.

After he had completed his assessment, the doctor left us with no explanation of what would happen next. After an hour + we were seen by the senior doctor. In that time we were able to calm our daughter, and she took a few mouthfuls of juice by herself, and did not vomit. The senior doctor was very helpful and gentle with our daughter. She explained that she was not badly dehydrated and that in fact we could take her home, as an IV drip was not necessary at that time.

Our daughter is now improving at home. We do not feel the assessment unit looked after our daughter well at all. She is 3 years old, and does not understand the implications of dehydration. She was not allowed to rest, and in forcing her to take fluid from a syringe, unnecessary distress was caused, which made the whole situation worse. It was counter productive when trying to help our daughter.