A 2-year old died in his father’s arms while waiting to be seen in the emergency room
“The Toronto Sun reported yesterday that the child was brought to the hospital by his parents around 5:30 Monday morning. He had reportedly vomited and had diarrhea the day before, and when his condition did not improve his parents tried to have him seen by an emergency room doctor.
They told the Sun that they waited for an hour without being seen by a doctor. Then, their son stopped breathing.”
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
10 bucks says somebody uses this as evidence that Canada has a terrible health care system.
Indeed, this is tragic, but I don’t think it necessarily reflects a failure of the medical system. I’m no doctor, but those symptoms don’t sound life-threatening, and an hour is an acceptable length of time to wait.
sorry, but i work in an ER, and anytime an infant or toddler is brought in, they have 1st priority and are quickly brought back and seen by the MD. while we do lose track of people sometimes in the hectic shuffle that is a metro ER, the elderly and children are given priority.
Sorry, anonymous, I too have worked in an ED. Actually Triage occasionally…
If a child has one episode of vomiting /diahrrea the day before (at least that is how I read the article, and doesn’t look sick (which is a sense/gut feeling you get after seeing thousands of patients), that hardly qualifies as an emergency, and they will be sitting in the waiting room for a while. If the child is so dehdrated/electrolytes are so out of whack that they are lethargic, then yes, they would be seen quickly. The reporting in this article didn’t seem like this was the case.
See my comments here.
I brought my newborn son to the ER last week after two late-night episodes of projectile vomiting. It took 15 minutes before the triage nurse showed up at the desk. Is that normal in Canada? The last time I was in the ER (when I was in labour), I had to wait almost 10 minutes.
Granted, once I actually saw the triage nurse (both cases), my son and I were seen quickly. But shouldn’t the triage nurse always be at the desk? How can they triage properly if there is no one there to do it?