Bob

So our eldest was pushed off a walk way on a park playground a couple days ago and fell about 5.5 feet and got a double break in her forearm, her hand was at right angles to her arm.

Anyone with kids, probably has experience, worried about, or knows someone with a kid breaking something, but figured some might be interested in the experience if they've not gone through it and also interested to see how it compares to others.

Don't know how it compares to the UK or other ER's, the experience is just what it is, some of it was great, some things really annoyed.

We were out of town, didn't know the area, so GPS and town signs for hospital name, turned out it was a none ER campus of the hospital with the same name, so a few miles across town and not the best start. ER didn't have pick/drop parking, so illegally parked on the curb because there was no access to the main entrance without an ambulance, so the side entrance it was. Turned out reception got valet to park my car after sorting admissions out and it cost $10, including the $3 tip Much cheaper than our regular hospital, so silver lining.

We arrived 2:45pm and valet dropped keys in my hand on our way out at 8:30pm. No idea how that compares?

Worst experience was admissions.

First word out of the person at the desk was "Who is your insurance provider and are you the primary?", once we got that out the way, they asked about kids name/dob/address and finally asked what was wrong, so she held up her arm with it flopping away and they got a bit snippy about how she shouldn't be doing that. She's 5. Anyway, they still made me carry her and my other kid, no wheelchair or bed, past the triage station, past the main ER area, including about 8 trolleys of people in the corridor, with one chap bleeding out of his arsehole, wtf moment there, but anyway, then we got to the Peds ER section which was a locked off unit.

Had to go through admissions process again, followed by a admin person asking about my and the missus details and for the insurance card. I couldn't find it and was in a bit of a flap. She came back 3 more times asking for the card, if I could get the info from the missus, if the missus was coming with the card and when the missus had arrived - we were in town to pick her up from a meeting but she was able to get a lift to the hospital.

From then, 17 different doctors, nurses and technicians saw the kid before we left. Is that normal?

Anyway, once we were in, they were all very nice and helpful/friendly, but it was a bitter process, but the kid got a bed quickly.

Triage nurse checked her vitals, then a triage doctor checked her eyes and head and ordered the x-rays. It was a little over an hour before she had them taken.

In between, regular nurse put a cold pack on the arm and offered Tylenol but the kid didn't want anything. Another doctor came by to explain the x-ray process, wait times and that there was only one ortho doc in the whole department and to expect a 2-3 hour wait for the ortho, and how the arm setting might work.

X-Ray person eventually came to get the kid and took x-rays, top down pic looked fine, sideways one was a bit ugly.

Back in the room, doctor said it looked like a splint and cast might do the job but would have to wait for the ortho. Also explained how they would drug the kid with ketamin while they set the arm.

We had the second head ER honcho doctor come by to see how kid was doing and how things were going. We had two different attendings come by to check on things and a student.

We had a blood doc come by to put in the IV in the arm, then another nurse to tape it all up. There was a gas doc to explain the drugs and feed the IV up. There was another nurse to put monitor pads on the kid, a technician to put the cables into the monitor and set that up then a nurse who was a "kids liaison" came by, meant she brought kids books for the kids and switched the tele on and she got juice for the little one, nothing for the eldest as she wasn't allowed food/drink till we left, which was a long day as she ate lunch at 11:30.

Anyway, 2 hours after x-ray, the ortho doc comes by and explains the arm setting process and what colour/pattern options there are for the cast. He was really nice and we opted to leave the room while he worked. He had an assistant with a mobile x-ray thing I think.

A while later, we were brought back in and told we needed to wait for another proper x-ray to see how it went. 2 hours later, x-ray person came back with a mobile machine and an assistant tech to do the pics.

Short while after, ortho said it looked good and they'd get us ready to leave.

Another doctor, was a shift change at this point, came by to explain that we needed to ring another ortho for a weekly check up and how long the cast will be on for and depending on how well it goes, might have the hand to shoulder cast for 4-5 weeks and then get a smaller, arm cast for a further couple weeks.

Another nurse during that was unhooking the tubes and a tech was disconnecting the breathing/heart monitor and we were discharged and able to dress the kid again, as she was in scrub things in case they needed to operate.

We had to point out that the arm IV thing was still in and waited a half hour for someone to come remove that. That was when the kid really cried...so we left the monitor pads on as they were stuck well hard, they're still on in fact. Also realised when we got home that they never gave us a sling for the kid.

We had to sign consent forms on first admissions to the ER, for the triage doctor, for the x-rays, to allow them to do ketamin for the pain and again for the doctor to set and cast the arm.

We have just arranged a doctors visit for next week...turns out, same hospital name/campus, but a different building...so that'll be fun to find.

No idea how much this is going to cost us, or if they're going to consider this an emergency or specialist co-pay and all that fun, so we'll add this to the exploding fallopian tube ER trip last year and premature birth + 3 weeks NICU bills.

TLDR: Broken arm, in and out in over 5.5 hours, saw 17 different medical people who were lovely. Admissions process was long and a hassle. You can get lots of fun colours and patterns for a cast including giraffes and crocodile prints.

Kid is fine.

I can see why people sue other people a lot more over here now....not that I'd ever find the little scrote again, but he didn't even apologise, but then at the time I was in a bit of a rush, humping two kids over my shoulder to leg the half mile up the road to the car as we'd parked a bit way by the picnic tables to check out some animals.

One other observation, a lot of doctors and nurses were talking on their mobile phones a lot, throughout the ER and they also didn't have a problem with me using my phone to call the missus, even though I seemed to be the only person with crap reception.

Sally Redux

Glad to hear Bobette is doing fine.

But bloody hell, Bob, what a palaver. It must take a special kind of personality to demand all the insurance info while an injured kid is in front you.

I hope you're all recovering OK from the experience and may your bills be little ones!

xx

AmerLisa

When your child is hurt, everything and everyone will be suspect. It's the only words I can add. Because whether you were here, there or Timbuktu it's just going to be crap when your kid has an accident and is in pain.

Hope your daughter feels better soon, Bob.

Bob

She's doing great now, purple cast, got some purple flowers and managed to avoid getting a shower

I have to say, the biggest relief in the world, when I ran over to her and saw that her head wasn't wonky with a broken neck.

Little sister was great too and she was really worried about things and kept asking if she was okay.

I can definitely hope not to see another broken bone up close like that again though.

scrubbedexpat091

Up my way cell phones are the primary forms of communication for hospital staff to call different departments and such.

Because we dont generally have phones in the rooms (unless you pay extra $$$$, same with TV costs extra $$$$ per day) when I got calls from people, the nurse brought in a cell phone so I could take the call.

Weeze

I can think of nothing worse. Glad she is okay.

Cardienscarf

Sorry to hear about the break and I hope she has a speedy recovery without too much weedling out of things.

ER sounds like it was a right old palaver. Not wishing to sound harsh, but I was rather heartened by it as I had to take my mother to A&E 2 weeks ago with a broken wrist and was wondering how it would compare with a US visit to ER. So here's how it went for us:

5:15 pm Mother fell over while walking the dog, another walker used his mobile to call my brother who called my sister who called me. Brother went straight to meet my mother who had been helped back to her car. He took her to the hospital. I met my sister at mother's house, fed the dogs, picked up her pills that she has to take at 6 pm, sister dropped me at mother's car which I drove to the hospital, arriving around 5:40.

By the time I got there, she was all checked in and sitting in a wheelchair waiting her turn. The info screen said the wait was 1 hr 30 mins but I don't think we waited that long before she was wheeled off to have an X-ray.

She was wheeled back out after the xray and then we waited to see the consultant. She refused the wheel chair when the nurse came to get her again and didn't want my brother and I to go with her although we could have done.

After about an hour and a half we decided to go and find her which seemed to be the most bizarre part of the experience. A porter used his card to let us in to the treatment area, there was no one on the reception desk and no one looked twice at us walking around looking for her. Finally found her on a bed in a corridor (which is where everyone seemed to be) outside the plaster room. She was well and truly out of it with monitors on. They'd sedated her to reset her wrist so we had to wait for her to come round. The consultant showed us the before and after x-rays and was obviously quite proud of his work. She'd broken both the ulna and radius.

The nurse who was looking after her made the appointment for mother to go to the fracture clinic so we wouldn't have to stop on our way out. She also brought us a wheelchair as mother wasn't feeling very well. I went and got the car (£3.50 parking), met her at the front of the hospital and drove her home. We were back by 10:15pm. So from fall to home was 5 hours. Quite a bit of that was because we had to wait for her to wake up after sedation. She saw maybe 5 different people.

I took her to the fracture clinic appointment yesterday and as we were getting in the car I nearly asked her if she had her insurance card and purse.

We were there about an hour and 20 mins during which time she had xrays and a new cast. Everything is healing well but it will take a long time because of the nature of the break and the fact that she's 80.

Everybody has been helpful, kind and thorough. The only fault I've found is they forgot to give my mother the booklet about what to do when she got home but my brother is a physiotherapist so she didn't actually need it. Had it been a problem, I would have gone and picked one up or called the doctor.

When we first arrived at A&E, there were about half a dozen others already waiting but by 9 pm it was full. No mobile phones allowed in A&E - people were going outside to make and receive calls. They do have a separate waiting room for children where they are also treated unless they need to be admitted.

So far, all they've asked for is my mother's name, DOB, GP and what the problem was.

ChocolateBabz

Glad the wee one is OK Bob, sounds like it could have been a lot worse.

Will be interesting to see if you get 17 different bills frm the 17 different dr's/nurses.

Bob

Glad your mum is doing well!

My mother cracked her forearm a year or so ago, tripped on the driveway, but she didn't remember to much of what happened by the time she got around to telling me about it, except that she was in and out, on the bus home in about 4 hours but it was middle of the day/week and surprisingly not busy apparently.

Be intrigued to see what the difference a Friday or Saturday night might make

Oh and this hospital, the ER "campus", was listed 21 out of the 46 entries on the GPS for the city, all with the same name, so no wonder I didn't find it straight off the bat

Bob

That's the hassle we're waiting for.

Already have a "specialist" co-pay when we see the Doc on Monday, the pre-recorded call back message to confirm the appointment did stress how that and insurance card was required up front before seeing the doctor for treatment.

cluedweasel

Interesting. We make the clinical and nursing staff leave theirs in their locker when on duty.

kins

Oh that must have been awful - seeing your child's arm like that!

My middle one broke her arm last year, but nowhere near that badly. I decided best to avoid ER so we went to the local walk-in. They saw her straight away and did X-rays, confirmed the break and put a splint on.

The next day we called the ortho specialist office and got an appointment that day. She went in, they removed the splint, Xrayed again, put her in a cast, gave her a sling, and told us to come back a week later.

During that week she had a lot of pain and was taking Tylenol a lot - that made her feel sick so she didn't eat properly, which meant the Tylenol made her more sick, etc. Eventually we had to insist on her eating. That was the most stressful bit TBH.

Visited the ortho every week or two for a while till the X-rays all showed it was set. Although it was a fairly serious break it did fix itself no problems.

Total out of pocket cost was $85.

It seems like kids all react differently to broken arms. Some friends said their child was back to normal in no time despite having a cast. Mine was very protective of her arm for ages and had a lot of pain.

Good luck with it. Hope she's OK.

Bob

If we'd been closer to home I probably would have considered that but wasn't sure if that's something those clinics do such as the CVS one, didn't look to extensive at least, the one we went to before anyway.

Then again, if we'd been home, we might still have avoided the hospital in the neighbouring town as it's got a pretty poor reputation and would have a choice of 4 really decent ones within 20 miles and a couple miles further for the hassle of Boston/Childrens.

lansbury

I'd be worried about the 17 different casts Bob. Did you ask for a price list, bet the colored ones with animals are more expensive.

Hope the little one gets better quickly and you are recovering from the experience OK.

ChocolateBabz

Wowzers - I want on your policy. I would have been my $1500 deductible to start with...