Monday, August 14, 2006

You Idiot!!!

I have tried not to whine and complain on my blog too much, but today I am going to let loose, so watch out!!!

This weekend we took my 16-month old into the hospital to get her stitches out (see below post for reason). They told us to return after 5 days to get her stitches out, but we went in after 6 to give her a little more healing time. The nurse in triage took her back to remove her stitches while my husband held her. Next followed 30 minutes of screaming while the nurse tried to remove her stitches. She finally called in another nurse to help her. In the process she completely ripped open my daughters lip again. My husband said that the nurse couldn't even grab the stitches, that she kept on missing. Afterwards she tried to "glue" it shut again with this nasty brown glue (that she completely spread all over my daughter's chin) and some adhesive strips. She placed two on her lips, the first one immediately fell off and the second only stayed on long enough to get out of the parking lot. The whole time she was trying to attach these strips she was telling me that my daughter would have a scar. I was furious!!! We brought her into the hospital in the first place because we did not want her to have a big ugly scar right on her bottom lip. If I had wanted her to have a scar I would have just left her lip wide open flapping around. She also told me that since her lip was open it left it open to infection and that we needed to be careful with it. This infuriated me even more, especially since the nurse wasn't wearing any gloves the whole time she was working on my daughter. So much for worrying about infection lady! And why would they have you come into the hospital to remove stitches if that isn't enough time to heal the wound. Could they say wait for 10 days instead of 5? It would have given her a little more time to heal back up. So a week later and who knows how much money later (we are still waiting for that bill to come), our daughter is still in the same position she was last week. Lip open and ugly. And now she will have that wonderful scar afterall. I am furious and I want to cry for my poor little girl.

12 comments:

  1. I think you should call and let loose on the hospital. One, that nurse should NOT be working on people without gloves and she should NOT be allowed to work on children.

    I am seething for you. Definately call and complain.

    They are professionals, they should act like it.

    This totally stinks Ity.

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  2. oh my gosh! I'm angry for you, too. That is totally unacceptable.

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  3. I'm so sorry. :( Unprofessional nurses are the worst. Hope this gets made right soon and your little girl's lip heals OK.

    I think you should call too.

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  4. I would call too! If you don't stand up for your kids no one else will. I can't believe she was working without any gloves on. I would be a tattle tail and let the hospital know what was going on. I hope she doesn't actually scar.

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  5. OH MY! I would be furious as well! I agree with Stephanie - call that hospital and let them know what she did. The doctors will actually appreciate knowing what she was like.

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  6. Oh that is so sad, I would call to. I hope your little one will be ok. Put Vit E on it to keep the scaring down. I would have taken her to the pediatrition (spelling?) to get the stitches out. It would have been easier on her and less money for the bills.

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  7. I would be so mad too! I think I'd ask for stitches to be put back in, and then take her to the family doctor!! *GROWL!*

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  8. Oh my lord! I would be just furious, I'd probably be foaming at the mouth! I think you should defenatly call!

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  9. Me too! Call call!

    Your baby girl will be ok, and will hopefully have very little scarring - but don't let that icky nurse ever forget who she messed with :)

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  10. What a nightmare! I think you definitely need to complain. Where was it that did it?

    I asked a Dr. I know about it. He said it sounds like the nurse didn't really know what she was doing. The keeping the stitches in for only 5 days is appropriate for stitches on the face. If they stay in any longer, you risk getting the frankenstein type scars. The ones that look like this:++++. You just have to remove the stitches carefully, because if you are fighting them, they can be reopened easily. And she definitely should have been wearing gloves!

    He says without seeing it he doesn't know whether it needs to be redone or not. The important issues are how much it is gaping open and where. The margin line running along the bottom edge of the lip is critical. Anything crossing that line is going to be at greater risk of being a visible scar, especially if the margin line does not line up. Typically, anything involving that margin line needs a Plastics Dr to repair it correctly. He says if you go to one now, they may try to redo it, or they just might recomend letting it heal, see if it scars too bad, and recomend repairing it later if it is too noticeable.

    Unfortunately, he doesn't remember any of Plastic's Dr's at Primary's.

    I don't know if any of this is helpful or not. I just sure wish the whole thing had never happened!

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  11. I hope you have followed the advice of some of your fellow bloggers and complained to that hospital. They will not correct the problem if you don't. Sorry I am a little slow in responding to your blog. But you do have my prayers.

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