I can’t believe how many parents bring their kids to the ER because “they told me they wanted to go.” Who’s running the show at your house? If your kid told you to jump off a cliff?…
January 10, 2009
January 10, 2009
I can’t believe how many parents bring their kids to the ER because “they told me they wanted to go.” Who’s running the show at your house? If your kid told you to jump off a cliff?…
January 10, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Wait, what kind of kid wants to go to the hospital?
January 10, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Hmm, my girls are a lot more likely to be told to suck it up. (Considering they come whining to me with microscopic “owies,” it’s not as cold-hearted as it might sound.)
January 10, 2009 at 7:41 pm
I had a 6-year-old kid and his mother leave against medical advice after I’d told the mother that the kid probably had appendicitis because the kid was sick of being in the ER and wanted to go home.
January 10, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Wow. We’ve never even once asked our kids if they felt they needed to go the ER. On the rare occasions WE judged they needed one, that’s where they went. We are bad parents.
January 10, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Man. I had a hard enough time staying home from school with a fever!
January 11, 2009 at 12:36 am
I saw a 3 year old the other day. He was there for belly pain, but fully clothed. I asked if they had been told to put him in a gown. Says Dad–”Yes, but he won’t put it on.” Guess we know who wears the pants in that family…
January 11, 2009 at 12:59 am
And let’s not forget the toddlers who “won’t take their medicine”. And the parents who freak when we hold ‘em and squirt it in for fear that their little darlings will be forever traumatized by being forced to do something they didn’t want to. Makes me want to write a “Parenting for Dummies” manusl.
January 11, 2009 at 11:19 am
@ premedjourney – I had a doctor once ask me if I wanted to have a tonsillectomy. Truth be told, I kind of did. I don’t know why, it just seemed interesting. (Of course, I didn’t actually say this, I just kind of shrugged and looked at the floor, wondering why the hell he was asking ME this, because even at age seven I was pretty sure I should leave that up to the professionals.)
January 11, 2009 at 4:14 pm
We have a lot of parents that bring their kids to the ED during the holiday because we always hand out a toy. Usually they’re cheap leftovers donated from dollar stores, but they know the toys are better around Christmas-time. Pretty sad.
January 11, 2009 at 9:09 pm
never heard that before.
January 12, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Kate-my kids and I get the McDonalds happy meal toys specifically to give them to the hospital. When my son was there years ago for his asthma, it was wonderful to have something to make the trip at least somewhat good for him. Since then, my kids save their toy (unopened in the plastic wrap) and when we collect enough, we go drop them off.
I would never think to ask my kids if they needed to go to the ER though. If they said yes, they probably don’t need to go and if they were sick enough I think they would say no knowing yucky things would happen.
January 16, 2009 at 8:47 am
20 is super high. Twice the normal. Well,human body is a complex machine.
January 30, 2009 at 12:47 am
Wow. My folks only ever asked me two things: 1) Is there bone showing? and 2) Are you going to die?
Needless to say, I only went to the ER once as a child, and had no say in the matter either way.
February 4, 2009 at 10:03 am
Your hospitals must be more exciting over there, my 6 year old would cry if she thought she had to go to hospital
February 9, 2009 at 6:50 am
I’m pretty sure I had to have a body part in a baggie to end up in an ER.
February 11, 2009 at 9:32 am
If my fever hit 102 or higher my mom tossed me in a tub of ice water. I never had to go to the ER as a kid though, even when I was knocked unconscious and knocked out a (baby) tooth. Mom just shoved the tooth back in. Oddly enough, the tooth stayed in another year until my permanent tooth came in. I think the gum grew around it to hold it in.
February 24, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I wish my friend had gone to the ER last weekend when she started getting a headache and vomiting, and I wish the adults who were with her had MADE her go to the hospital instead of bending to a 16-year-old’s begging of “I don’t want to go to the hospital, just rub my head and make it stop hurting.”
Maybe the hospital would have been able to treat her subdural hematoma and she’d still be alive today.
I’d rather a parent brought a child “who said they wanted to go” and it turned out to be nothing, rather than a parent didn’t bring a child “who didn’t want to go” and it turned out to be fatal.
March 3, 2009 at 4:33 pm
CB,
There is a big difference between a head ache with vomiting and “they told me they wanted to go.”
The point you are missing is that the wrong person is making the decision. The parent should be the one making the decision to go or to stay home.
March 10, 2009 at 1:22 am
I love it when the mom tells me that the 2 year old told her “Mommy take me to the hospital.”
My theory is that the kid wanted some cheetos, they know we always have them in the vending machine in the waiting room.