Hello!
summer of last year my ds(6) went to the park with my mum. He was climbing, lost his balance and hit his nose.
I immediately left work and took him straight to the hospital as his nose was swollen. The doctor who seen him said it was more than likely broken but with it being swollen there was nothing they could do- advised to come back in a couple of weeks for them to reassess and to keep an eye on him.
over the next 24 hours he wouldn’t eat or drink and was vomiting. Took him to the Gp and was told it was probably a viral infection- nothing to do with his nose and to take him home.
fast forward to the next day, my son started hallucinating, vomiting and it was harder to keep him awake or for him to take fluids. There was also a yellow fluid coming from his nose.
rang 111 told he needed an emergency ambulance but they wasn’t one so had to get a taxi (which I don’t mind, I understand the current situation of the NHS).
after 12 hours of my son lying on a metal chair out of it, we were advised that he probably has concussion and they were going to keep him in to monitor him.
we were in this hospital 4 days, I kept telling them it was to do with his nose. Please can someone check on his nose- he hadn’t ate or drank and had to be put on a drip. Again, I kept saying it was something to do with his nose and this wasn’t a coincidence. I got told I had health anxiety and was told I should maybes look in to getting some councelling as this was just viral.
they finally took my sons blood and his infection markers were nearly at 100 (someone correct me if I’m wrong as I’m not medically trained, but apparently they should be under 8?). Put him on antibiotics and said he had an infection but they weren’t sure where from. Again I said his nose but they said no. They tried to do a lumbar puncture on him when he was awake as they thought it could be meningitis but couldn’t as he was in to much pain.
on the fourth day a different doctor came and said they had missed something on the scan (he had one when he first got admitted) and it looked like there was something wrong with his nose. He had to be transferred to a specialist hospital and as soon as we got there I was told they were taking him to theatre to do a lumbar puncture as he was seriously unwell and that they would also go into his nose to check the damage.
my son was in theatre 3 hours. Two surgeons came to see me and i Instantly knew it was bad news. They said he had an infection in the fracture in his nose and because it had been left for so long the inside of his nose had totally gone and would probably need rebuilding and they had never seen an injury this severe on a child so small.
he also had sepsis and I was told he might not have made it if we had left him any longer. We were in hospital 2 weeks, I never left his side and he had to undergo another operation and was on IV antibiotics, morphine and something else.
luckily in his second operation they said they had seen a healthy bit of cartilage and his nose wasn’t as bad as they first though- but I won’t know as he has to have checkups and treatment till he is an adult then we will know if it needs any work.
today you can see a difference in his nose but if you didn’t know him I guess you wouldn’t realise, but he has hospital appointments every month to monitor him. He has also been left with separation anxiety and is in my bed every night and can’t be alone.
the two surgeons who effectively saved my son said I need to take this further. They didn’t say how but just said to stop this ever happening again something needs to be done.
I am well aware the NHS is on its arse and I am so, so grateful to the doctors at the second hospital for all that they did for my son and I think I would feel
to guilty if I was to “sue” because doctors are so stretched but then I have people telling me I am just letting them get away with it.
what would you do? And would it BU to take it further?
sorry it’s so long and thank you for reading this far.