So our pediatrician really screwed up!

[Giant Robot]

Little Robot got a cough on Christmas Eve that was pretty bad and we went to the pediatrician who checked her out and said that she seemed ok for the most part, lungs and ears clear, so just make her comfortable and this should go away. The cough never really went away but was not really much of an issue anymore, was barely there.

We took her into the walk in clinic this past Sunday because she was running a fever and saying her ears hurt. Doctor there said ears checked out ok, and this should just clear up on its own.

Monday morning her fever reached 104 and we were worried and away to the pediatrician we went. Who again said that this was nothing and it should run its course.

Wednesday we went back to the pediatrician because the fever had not broken, and we were concerned and running out of options since she could not go to daycare. Again he said she checked out and this should still run its course. He did not want to give us anything to help her yet, and said we may want to look at doing labs if this continued through the weekend. No help there after expressing our frustration with not being able to get her to daycare and needing to work, as well as the fact that this has been going on for a long time and we did not know if she had even gotten over the Christmas Eve thing. We were not happy at all.

Thursday Mrs. Robot takes her back to the walk in clinic to beg for something for her as six days with a fever running between 102-104 was enough. The doctor there said she was not sure what to do about this, but was wondering about the cough, as again it was still there, but like I said was not something we were even thinking of. So the doctor said let's take an x-ray of her chest to be on the safe side of things.

My daughter has pneumonia.

I am so unbelievably pissed off right now at the pediatrician I cannot even put it into words. He missed a case of pneumonia??!!! I'm not sure I can go back to him anymore although everyone is telling us to call them to tell them of this I'm not sure I can do that right now. I hope I'm not overreacting but that's just where I am at right now with this. Maybe in a few more days I will cool down but it seems like this was a big thing to miss that could have endangered her life. Anyway just had to share. Thanks for listening.

[sammytko]

1. i'd be mad also

my grand-niece was sick for weeks. They kept taking her to the doctor and the 3rd one found that she was allergic to penicillan. Poor baby.

[Lars39]

2. I'm glad she finally got diagnosed correctly.

I dropped a pediatrician once because he let my daughter's ear infection get to the point of rupturing.

Slightly off-topic, but a few things I've learned over the years....always have medical records transferred back to the main doctor, or pediatrician. Even your records at the walk-in clinics need to be transferred back. Also, keep a calendar of doctor visits. Something like Palm Desktop works very well for this. It helps keeping track of the bills, but it also helps you notice patterns to allergies or sickness.

[grasswire]

3. is this your first child?

Learn to trust your instincts and to insist on diagnosis. An attentive parent knows when something is wrong. You knew. And yes, they do miss pneumonia. Our teenagers have been undiagnosed with pneumonia more than a few times, even though they've had it more than a few times. The song and dance is always: "it's probably just a virus and will go away."

You must advocate strongly for your child's health, always. You are right to be angry.

That said, the probable reason for their caution is the overuse of antibiotics. Understandable, and laudable, but lazy sometimes.

[elleng]

4. Get away from that so-called pediatrician immediately,

write to him as soon as you've found someone else, and forget the walk-in clinic too, imo.

'we may want to look at doing labs if this continued through the weekend' What stupid thing to say!

Hugs to you all, and I hope you have choices there.

:grouphug:

[Haole Girl]

5. +1

[skygazer]

6. Well, to be fair, she may not have had the pneumonia until recently

I've had pneumonia several times. It often develops AFTER another illness weakens the respiratory system. Like a flu or a bad cold. So she may have had the cough and fever from a nasty virus and that eventually turned into the pneumonia.

Which can be tough to diagnose sometimes. The lungs make some distinctive sounds when a person has pneumonia (rales, they call them) but in the early stages, they're harder to hear.

I do understand your anger and frustration but this may not be a case of incompetence. There have been a lot of cases of stubborn colds and viruses this year in my area and a lot of them have lingered. Antibiotics do not work on viruses and overuse of them is a problem. It is responsible not to dispense them if there is not an indication of bacterial infection.

Anyway, I'm sorry she has pneumonia and I hope she is now on meds and feeling better. It's very frustrating to have a sick child and not get any satisfying answers but it may not be the doctor's fault.

[janx]

7. Doctors have been overly cautious, I think, about prescribing

antibiotics. The caution is understandable, since adults and children can develop an immunity to them, but honestly, if a child has a raging fever for a week, something has to be done.

[ThomCat]

8. Please leave that doctor and clinic.

Find a doctor and a clinic that will trust you when you say there is something wrong.

It sounds very much like they are more concerned with keeping costs down and not doing anything costly unless the doctor thinks there are definite and obvious signs that the patient has something. But one of the big reasons for running tests to eliminate uncertainty. You are SUPPOSED to run tests when you aren't sure.

You need to find a doctor who will respond to uncertainty, who will run tests, who will listen to you, and answer your questions, and explain things to you.

And I suggest that you need to write to your current doctor and explain in writing exactly why you won't be coming back. Your current doctor needs to know that he endangered your daughter by being negligent.

I hope your daughter makes a full recover from her pneumonia very quickly. :hug:

[BlueIris]

10. .

Long letter. Strong language.

And get well soon, Little Robot.

[rebel with a cause]

9. Six days with a fever is a sign of something being wrong...

Heck, three days with a fever that does not break is a sign there is something wrong. I fought with so many doctors over my children when they were younger, and yet I had several doctors for long periods of time that I just loved. It is all just finding the right one. I told a doctor one time at the walk in clinic/emergency room in NYC that I pitied anyone that had to depend on him for medical care because he either didn't care about the children or he didn't know anything. When I saw my pediatrician a few days later, he laughed as he read my son's file. Evidently the doctor wrote down what I had told him. He didn't act like he disagreed with me. ;)

Medical craziness: An awful dentist almost killed my daughter one time giving her gas. My nephew had an appendix rupture because doctors thought he had the flu for two weeks when he evidently didn't. My son (a few weeks old) was colicky (?) and screaming in pain when a doctor told me that I was just imagining things. I had never dealt with a baby in that much pain. My pediatrician diagnosed him as that later when he saw him.

Now it is me that is dealing with doctors and specialist are the worse of the lot. Some of them tend to have a God complex. I told my daughter the other day that the illnesses are not going to kill me, the doctors are. I wish sometimes that I could go back to the old fashioned family doctor who was far from perfect but at least he knew who you were.

[madamesilverspurs]

11. Doc told my brother and his wife to see a shrink

because they were imagining things, that their son was perfectly fine. Somehow the doc gave the kid an examination and failed to notice both the epilepsy and cerebral palsey.

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