For the last week our son has developed a significant (and new) facial twitch, rapid blinking and rolling his eyes all the way back into his head. He’s completely not with it when it happens, and it distracts him to the extent he can’t go back to whatever he was doing before without prompting.
He’s profoundly autistic, and has limited communication. The little language he does have, he’s struggling to use - because the twitching is so distracting, and persistent.
Today we received a call from school asking us to collect, because he was distressed and was twitching almost every 30 seconds.
I called 111 and was advised he needed “urgent medical attention.” So urgent, that he couldn’t wait to see an out of hours doctor, because it wouldn’t be quick enough. So we went to A&E, which is a real battle for him usually anyway.
2hrs later, the doctor comes in and refuses to go anywhere near him. He stood at the door of the room, and said he’d come back soon. He then came back 45mins later and said there was nothing medically wrong, it was behavioural - take him home.
I repeated what 111 had told us, and told him this is not our son’s presentation of behaviour. He then said he sees children all the time, this is behavioural and is “just his autism,” so probably best to leave. We asked him to at least examine him, and he said “the child obviously won’t tolerate that.”
I expressed my concern that DS may have something more significant happening that is being ignored because of his level of need, and he just said “that’s not the case, there’s no medical cause.” Having not examined him.
So we left, with no answer or support whatsoever.
I don’t think I am, but would I BU to raise this as a formal complaint?