To think they shouldn't have called an ambulance

[Andyetanothernamechange]

DD, aged 2, was having breathing difficulties. This is the third time in 2 months. I took her to the local urgent care centre where she was seen quickly and put on a nebuliser. Half way through the nebuliser she perked up massively and started singing! After the neb her sats were fine, but by that point the doctor had called 999 for her to be blue lighted to A&E. When the paramedics arrived, DD was singing baa baa black sheep. At this point the doctor said she had previously suspected sepsis but not anymore and the blue light wasn't needed. DD sang for the entire journey in the ambulance. At A&E we waited a while, gave her her inhaler (which I had already) and were given a course of steroids. I know that breathing problems are not to be dismissed, but after one nebuliser she was markedly better and UCC could have prescribed the steroids without needing to use an ambulance or A&E time. Of course it's better to be cautious with small children, but it just seemed as though they made an initial decision and then couldn't go back on it. Ultimately, I felt like it was a waste of resources for her to be sent my ambulance to another hospital when she could have been treated where she was.

a2011x

Jesus thats terrifying. How could that happen in a&e?

Glad your dd is fine now.
[Flowers]

My daughter needed an ambulance for asthma last week, initially the First Responder managed to stabilize her with a neb but the paramedics still wanted her to go in. They loaded her up and off they went, initially without blues and twos but 10 minutes into the journey DD became incredibly unwell and needed quite a lot of intervention to keep her going she was then party to the full lights/sirens and was met by the crash team. Thankfully she is ok but you never, EVER, piss about with asthma and breathing difficulties. Your scenario was not a waste of an ambulance or any resources, it is well known that sick kids compensate for their illness much better than adults but when they do crash it is often sudden and from a great height.

In April my asthmatic son woke up unable to breathe properly - he's 8. We tried his inhalers and finally called the ambulance. My son was fighting for breath and became extremely weak, I honestly thought he would die. When the paramedics arrived and gave him a nebuliser he stabilised and seemed fine, I thought they would leave him at home but they insisted on blue lighting him to hospital, where he relapsed again and was rushed into resuscitation. I honestly thought I was going to lose him. My point is - children can deteriorate so so quickly and unfortunately these amazing medical professionals have seen it countless times. If they had left him at home he may not have been with me now.

Andyet

Small children (and older ones as i found out) can perk up very quickly but the strain of the episode can be debilitating and they can crash again without warning.
My son only had asthma if he had a bad chest infection for years and i was quite blazè about it.

Then came the hosp admissions. Watching your preteen struggle to breath over and over and see the o2 levels dropping on machines is terrifying. To sit and watch as they get nebulised and medicine every half hour then hourly all bloody night until drs are satified they can keep thier stats up brings it home to you like a sledge hammer.

Do not dismiss the need for vigilance with asthma.

These threads are getting stupid now. Over the past few months I’ve seen people on here criticise others for using a clinically appropriate ambulance or people posting wondering if they should go to A&E or not and delaying because they are too worried about wasting time. Ultimately a dr with many years of training felt it was appropriate to call an ambulance so it was an appropriate use of the service. Yes there are issues with people abusing the service but it doesn’t tend to be doctors that are in that category!

When I did workexerience I saw someone that was walking and taking at the GP surgery die 5 minutes later on route to hospital. It was the first death and I saw and it will stay with me forever. People (especially children) can deteriorate incredibly fast.

Asthma kills. The doctor was right to think of the next step. What if the nebuliser didn't work so effectively.
Ambulance workers love nothing more than to look after a well child.

These stories are heartbreaking.

This has to be a goad/troll? No parent would complain that their child had been given excellent care.Especially when said parent has no medical knowledge to judge.
I personally know of parent's who have been told by their doctor and/or hospital staff that their dc was not seriously ill and the child has sadly died.
Op/troll,this is in seriously bad taste and I suggest you apologise,ask for it to be removed and thank the medical staff for caring so wonderfully for your dc.

2011 that is terrifying.

I have to say the receptionist at when I went with DS A&E was totally on the ball.

I honestly think the message that asthma kills is getting through to people but calling this thing in tots 'viral wheeze' is totally undermining the condition and the seriousness off it.

Thanks to this thread I now know the real reason he was on a monitor as well as everything else. Nurses and Docs do a fab job of playing things down to avoid panic but OMG how close a shave has my LO had.

@KarmaStar I have apologised and agreed that IABU.

I am sure that if they 100% didn't think it was needed that they would have cancelled it. I understand your feeling about it being unnecessary but they could have cancelled it. I am sure they would have, if they felt the resources weren't necessary. It is not your fault to worry about. Best wishes to your daughter.

OP is your little ok now? It’s that horrible time of year when all the bad coughs and colds add to the little ones asthma

And yet the Urgent Care Centre won't have had the expertise to deal with a deteriorating child. They will have needed to get her to a place where there were anaesthetists who could intubate and ventilate a critically ill child, then stabilise her. It isn't the oxygen on a wall that makes it a mini A&E, it's the staff, the access to imaging, blood tests, intensive care, etc.

You worried that your singing DD was wasting resources, but many of our sickest ICU patients are sitting up, reading newspapers, texting friends and loved ones, watching TV, but desperately ill with nurses and doctors scurrying around trying to fix them. They are allowed to be sick and bored

I've been in HDU drinking tea and updating FB, I'd had a huge a huge amount of meds and was still on them.
Another time I did the same with a stitched in vent line.

My DS2 (19 mo) is on his second bout of viral wheeze in a few month. He was sent to A&E in respiratory distress the first time. Having read this thread, I’m going to keep a much closer eye on him.

Is this a genuine post???

This has to be a goad/troll?

Absolutely!

I personally would be grateful she’s better

YABU... children can compensate compensate compensate.. then deteriorate very quickly .. it was in your child's best interests to go in an ambulance.

Haven't read whole post, at least they got you one and sorted your daughter out quickly...

When my 7yo was 1 (not same reason as you) she cracked her head open on tv unit, I called for an ambulance, 30 mins later I got a call back asking if it was still needed, by this time my partner was home and took the call. He told them that the bleeding had stopped but think she will need stitches and when he put the phone down he asked me if I knew who could give us a lift as they cancelled the ambulance, I had to get someone to come that lived half hour away to drive us to a hospital that was 40mins away and then sit around for hours before they eventually checked on my 1yo.... I was furious and wanted to complain and take it as far as I could as I was furious they left my 1yo like that for that long.

My partner talked me out of it and said the main thing was our baby was ok so I decided to leave it and not go further, but 6 years on and it still pisses me off that happened

I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that once an emergency ambulance has been dispatched that it then must attend. Whether they arrive and are no longer required is a different matter but I'm sure they have to arrive to assess the situation once they've been tasked (I could be wrong though!)

Also, children overcompensate in illness and it can be quite terrifying. Their little bodies seem to cope well but they deteriorate very quickly and it can take alot more work to stabilise them compared to an adult, so being taken to hospital sounds like the absolute best decision for your little one. I'm glad she's ok ☺️

Many illnesses have fairly similar symptoms in the early stages and the doctors have to make a judgement based on their experience as to whether this is a ‘see how it goes ’ situation or an emergency. Sometimes they will get things wrong, in this case, luckily, the outcome was less serious than the doctor feared. This isn’t a waste of resources, it is emergency health care working properly.

That is wrong ocean they’re cancelled in “ambulance” (bbc1) all the time

Why did you agree to get in the ambulance OP if you were happy to take the responsibility then just say no thanks we’ll be off home

Never mind sepsis asthma can be a killer and it is dangerous to be in any way complacent about it. A 2 year old requiring nebulisers probably should be transferred to hospital.