Hospital Rant!!!

[blnony]

DD was also jaundiced for the 1st week. She had over 18 sticks in her tiny little heals and she was a preemie. It was just heart breaking. There was one tech I wouldn't let touch her again because she had blood everywhere but in her little container. I am still traumatized, but DD seems to be over it completely! LOL.

One tip we recieved from our Peds nurse in the hospital, have them put antibiotic cream on the stick and cover with a kiddie bandaid. Not the little circles or adult band aids. The kiddie ones won't take off the skin. This works too after shots.
ALso, just a note to anyone out there expecting, who's baby has to have phototherapy. When they take off those velco tabs (which killed me too!!) Use Aquaphor on them. The red patches went away in hours.

Ans don't feel bad or like your overreacting, It is just instint, which God meant for us to have!

[twins r fun]

Thought I'd add my own hospital rant and this may be long because I just found out some new information and I am MAD! My twins were preemies-stayed in the hospital 3 weeks and 5 weeks, were on ventilators, daily blood tests, a spinal tap, IV's, etc. I was just happy they were alive so I didn't find it too horrible. Anyway, when he was 9 days old, Jacob's IV slipped out of his vein and all the chemicals entered the surrounding tissue causing basically a chemical burn about the size of a quarter (which is really big on a 5 lb baby). The nurses were supposed to check the IV's every hour, but on this day I had been there at least 3 hours and his nurse had never checked it. I was the one that discovered his leg was swollen to 3 times its normal size. The hospital admitted that it was unfortunate that it happened , but "these things do happen on occasion"-the nurse said she had checked the IV, but I know she did not. They had a plastic surgeon see him and we followed up several times after he came home. The scab fell off after 2 months and he now has a large scar and indentation mid-shin. However, we thought that was the end and if that was the worst of it, so be it.

Lately my husband and I have noticed that he is crawling and walking (with assistance) kind of wierd-he's swinging the leg with the scar out to the side. We talked to a physical therapist and she said he doesn't have the range of motion he needs in that ankle possibly due to scar tissue, or muscle/ligament damage. We got the pediatrician to refer us to an orthopedist on Friday. Today I called for an appointment and he can't be seen until mid December! He should be walking soon and may not learn properly and they want me to wait 6 weeks to get an inital appointment. So DH called the hospital to get them to make a reccomendation and pull some strings so we can get an appointment in a reasonable amount of time-they owe us at least that, right? They of course are worried about liability and are being very cautious about "following procedures" when they talk to us so we are getting nowhere. I don't want to sue them, I just want someone to see my son so he he's able to learn how to walk without a limp! Hopefully we'll get somewhere either through them or through another orthopedist. You'd think if they were so worried about liability they'd be jumping to make us happy just so we don't sue. Thanks for listening!

Nicole

[jojo2324]

That's horrible! I should think that the hospital would be doing whatever it could, regardless of liability. They screwed up and they need to take care of any incidences that follow those mistakes! I hope everything works out. Maybe you should go and throw a tantrum somewhere...The squeaky wheel gets the oil...Good luck!

[Community Chest]

That sucks. Speaking strictly as a med tech, there is nothing complicated about a heel stick. Why come did they have to do it twice?
That is blatant incompetency.

It helps if the little ole heel is warmed first. Footsies sometimes can be cold and this usually helps the sample to be collected faster! :)

[twins r fun]

Thought I'd add the conclusion (well not really) to my post. We did continue to make noise with the hopsital and the head of the NICU got us an appointment for next week with the head of pediatric orthopedics at Johns Hopkins. The hospital in paying for the initial assessment (and will reevaluate from there), which means we will be able to get x-rays, etc on site as opposed to being referred elsewhere as we would have had to if going through insurance. Yeah! At least they're taking care of it now. Hopefully we'll find out it's not a big deal and he'll walk fine.

Nicole

[jojo2324]

Happy to hear that things are progressing! Good luck and please keep us posted!