To think drunk teen shouldn't be in paeds A&E?

[Us3r21422]

NC for this in case picked up by the likes the of Daily Fail etc.

Took DD to paeds A&E last night due to concerns about dehydration after 5 days of gastro bug and decreasing tolerance for fluids and no wet nappy for 12 hours. Luckily she is OK and we were allowed home after some anti sickness meant she could tolerate water, but the place was full of really sick babies and toddlers. Dr said 4 cases of D&V/dehydration, plus a query sepsis child, croup etc.

I heard someone approach the nurses station and say they were bringing a drunk 15 year old and his parents round from adult A&E, no particular reason given, so assume this was purely based on his age. He did say dad was struggling to manage said drunk teen.

At this point I knew we were going home, so no real skin in the game, but I thought to myself that if the teen was that drunk, was paeds A&E really the place to bring him when he would have received presumably the same medical care in adult A&E?

As I say, no big deal to me as we were leaving, but I'm not sure I'd have been happy with a drunk/loud/aggressive/silly teen in the cubicle next to us. More so for the other parents and children who were really very very poorly and had clearly been there a long time, were very tired, waiting for a bed on the ward etc.

So - aibu to think drunk teen probably should have stayed in adult A&E and that it's not really desirable for a 15 year old who's had a few too many to be in the same (very small) department as lots of really unwell younger children?

I guess the OP could be speaking from experience as a child themselves. I was in hospital a couple of times between 14 and 17, always onto adult wards and 1st time over 100 miles from home on my own. DM only came to collect me after a week. The other in the local hospital with normal visiting hours for DM.

I work for CAMHS and regularly go to A&E to see children. Last week I has to go to see someone because they were 17 in Adult A&E. It is a world away from predicate a&E. Adult A&E is no place for a child.
You are being incredibly judgemental. You have no idea as to why they were in the state they were in

I do hope your perfect DD never needs a place in A&E on a ward as a child. The NHS is FREE at the point of delivery to everyone - without judgement.
I will tell you my story and you can judge me as you may and my ‘child’.
15 year old went to party - drank vodka - lots of it - didn’t realise the ‘volume’ issue … hit him all of a sudden… out cold - totally unresponsive, taken by blue light to A&E, unable to rouse him, wet himself and pop’s himself. Blood pressure dropped , vomiting loads.
Given a drip to stop him potentially dying .

was I proud - no! Was I pleased - no! Did I condone it - no!
I am forever grateful to the NHS - yes!
i can still feel your judgment on me as a mother and us as a family - well to give you something else to twitter about - both of us are professionals, he is now studying medicine and is second year at Oxfordx sporty, kind, loving etc. but was misguided and thankfully was able to get help when he needed it.
you do know if you continue to judge in this way that your child will never come to you and you have misunderstood the point of helping others in need.

This . x

I don’t believe this either 100% don’t believe this conversation happened and anyone in a professional capacity would have said anything.

I have to say,when my youngest was admitted and being tested for all sorts of petrifying things,a drunk teenager brought welcome distraction to me (alone with 11 month old dd due to vivid),they were absolutely harmless but entirely hillarious!

Your child's sickness could be treated exactly the same in the adult section, as could sepsis etc. Age is why they are in peads. Age is why the 15 year old went to peads. The fact is peadiatric have a shorter target wait time. It doesn't matter if your drunk, in a car accident or having a seizure if your a minor your a minor.

YABU and terribly judgemental. I hope your words don't come back to haunt you when your DD is a teenager, notorious for poor decision making while they are learning as they all are. Nobody's under 18 year old child is more important or deserving of treatment or sympathy than anybody else's under 18 year old child with a medical problem.

This^

I think your being harshly treated!

obviously we don’t know what state the teen was in but yes he belonged in paediatrics but if I was there with my younger toddler I would have felt very uncomfortable if he was being loud/ aggressive and swearing (obviously speculation) and would hope he would be moved.

just as much as he would have that right to be seen in paediatrics the younger ones have the right to not be put in that situation and be seen in a safe calm environment.

Children’s A and E is right place for drunk child as it triggers safe guarding issues in appropriate place.

As he is under 18 years, he is still a child and at school.
Yes he will have a very sore head and the pleasure of being woken up every hour to check his neuro obs.
I am a Children's Nurse!
It is hard for other patients and parents to see a child drunk etc but every one should be treated the same.

All children are of value, whether toddler, teen or inbetween. A&E is for everybody, no one child is more precious than another. It sounds like the teen needed care that night, and was in the right place. Albeit with a very different set of needs to your own child. It's natural to want to put our own children first, especially when they're ill/vulnerable. The teens parents probably felt exactly the same.

It’s something they will deal with regularly. It’s a 15 year old. No one would want their 15 year old in that situation but you definitely wouldn’t want a drunk 15 year old in a bay of 40 year old adults …

MichB86

But younger children are often the ones stopping a calm environment. My teen needs calm to eat but often doesn’t get it. I don’t get to dictate. It’s an overstretched NHS hospital. Every patient on a paed ward is lucky to have a bed. You suck up whatever staff are having to suck up on any given day.

Yes but there’s a difference between a roudy crying toddler and an aggressive drunk teen. It terms of the younger ones being scared.

Im not saying there is a perfect answer and yes it was the right place for him but just if he was being aggressive and swearing which obviously is complete speculation then the younger ones surely deserve to be safe guarded from that behaviour.

But agree that younger children shouldn’t get to treat a and e like a play ground and should be kept reasonably quite and not charging around.

I wasn't aware that getting drunk as a kid means you forfeit the right to appropriate medical care and to be safe from unknown adults.

Don't be stupid, a sick kid (even if drunk) belongs in the kids ward.

Kids bodies work differently to adults and they therefore need to be treated by paediatricians.

I don’t think there is. We’ve had to contend with some really poor child behaviour. And being drunk doesn’t necessarily mean aggression. Security are often on paeds wards but from what I’ve witnessed they are often trying to protect patients from themselves or escaping not stopping them from being aggressive to others.

I think you’re being naive. Challenging behaviour from teens and children happens on wards daily. They are suffering so it is to be expected. It will present in different ways. They all have a right to be there, the wards are always full so it is what it is. What do you expect staff to do?They can’t magic behaviour away and won’t have the capacity to provide private rooms for overly precious parents.

Yes following that line of thought surely anyone that is overweight / undertaking a dangerous sport / smokes / had an accident due to carelessness should be turned away as well? Only the virtuous and cute toddlers may avail themselves of the nhs.

I would be surprised if the staff batted an eyelid. They have much worse coming in than a drunk teen. When my six foot two boy was in with a drug overdose he was treated with such compassion and care by a doctor who was an expert in the mental health issues that were plaguing him. He didn’t fit in the bed though and the wall stickers did look a bit jarring.

That was a very ignorant and uncalled for comment. It all depends on the effects of what you very dismissively call a ‘tummy bug’. And on what’s causing the symptoms. It might not be appropriate to call it a tummy bug at all until it’s been checked out, when the symptoms are so severe.

Of course teenage children should be treated in childrens A+E. You have no idea of their background and as children they need to be in an appropriate medical environment for their age but also staff who have a good understanding of their vulnerabilities and safeguarding concerns. Teenagers are also vulnerable and in the future your child or one of their friends may be be in a similar position

I am a child protection social worker and absolutely a 15 year old should be treated in paediatric A&E. The most challenging part of my caseload are very vulnerable teenagers who have been totally let down by their family and then a society which wants to criminalise them, discount them, make them other peoples problems.

I have only just finished work because I have been finding things to do with a 13 year old because she had no identified foster carer until about 2 hours ago. She finished school at 3pm and had had to sit in our office until the cleaners chucked us out at 6 then bloody McDonalds etc. I have now been doing this for 3 weeks, the longest placement has been 2 days. This is on top of an area case load- I do not work in a looked after team. Some kids in this situation may not make the best life choices and end up in A&E. We are in this situation because they have been let down massively in their early years by everyone - most importantly the people most children take for granted. Honestly- being judged by someone who really has no idea why a teenager may end up in A&E drunk may seem like nothing. But it all chips away...

Why would you imagine the child would be shouting and swearing? Is that what your child does?

Criticism of you for taking your baby to A and E is plain nasty. Your criticisim ref the 15 year old tells me you were very lucky this time and did not experience what it's like for many adults in the NHS including the emergency department right now.

I unfortunately have to use A and E alot for very serious health conditions. I assure you, the number one thing we all need to be worried about right now is the absolute state of the system ( thanks to blatant underfunding ). Just getting seen at all in a timely manner is a luxury and something we should fight to keep hold of. I imagine your experience didn't give you a good insight into how it really is at the moment in the NHS. I am so pleased the young teenager didn't end up in adults A and E.