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?

There is no way they said that, when a 15 year old cannot be treated in adults as they are still a child.

You've definitely made that up.

Did you just sit there and listen intently to the conversations regarding other patients that you know so much detail ? Wow ! And so judgemental

I also don’t believe doctors would say it sounded like a ‘job for adults’. Firstly, they don’t call it ‘adults’, secondly, all of the correct-sized equipment for a child is in paeds. It is clear a child in a risky state should be in the appropriate department.

I think it’s probably a case of a tired woman who was worried about her child felt irked that the medics may have been distracted by a drunk teen (the history of which none of us know) and she personally found it distasteful around her own little baby.

Is it that the child was drunk that you objected to? How would you have felt if it was a 15 year old in with something like an anaphylactic reaction? Should they also be in adult A&E in your opinion?

At what age do you think people go from being paediatric patients to adult patients?

Paeds docs and nurses don’t like anything out of the ordinary as a paeds admission, which is tough, 15 is a paed regardless of what the problem is. A vulnerable child on an adult ward is a a definite complaint in the making.

Under the age of about 21, I didn't get hangovers at all - bright as a button the next day! It's age that's ruined that! But as a te3n, that kind of noise wouldn't have bothered me at all, I'd have been skipping about the next day!

YABU teen alcohol poisoning is extremey serious , evn fatal.

I’ve had to take a 6ft6inch teen to Paeds A&E (it was after an accident). That’s just where children have to go in our hospital.

As you will discover when your child/ren are older, a 15y is still a child - even a drunk one.

And as well, there are significant safeguarding issues re teens. Teens almost never see doctors. I went in with my dd and they did an extensive grilling on her because they said teens really slip through the net.

I spent many hours in a&e with my kid over the years. There was always a drunk teen in there, it ended up being a dead cert on our a&e bingo.

Ambulances etc are always instructed, 15 and under paeds. No way medical professionals thought he should be with adults. It is contrary to standard practice.

Of course a child should be treated in paeds A&E, no question. And this will happen on a regular basis so your assertion that the doctors and nurses didn't think it was right is absolute bullshit.

Paeds A&E will also look after kids with mental health issues - and let me tell you, sometimes they're even more disruptive and difficult to manage than the drunk kids, but we do it because kids deserve a safe and appropriate place to be.

This was exactly the sense I got. But apparently I made it up so it doesn't matter anyway!

I literally have no reason to make it up! We were done receiving treatment, weren't "exposed" to anything and it really was nothing more than a pondering - albeit with what I can now see was poor judgement. Some posters have made some really helpful and valid comments and I've learnt a good amount about both teens and how paediatric medical care works!

If anyone thinks I'm making up the part about them saying he had "had a few", or "sounds like a job for adults" then you'll be foaming to hear the comments about one of the other parents, for whom they were trying to contact the duty social worker. I must admit that one shocked me quite a lot.

I don't think he was ambulance staff. I got the impression he was a nurse or doctor. But I didn't see because, believe it or not, I wasn't trying to snoop. Curtains just aren't very soundproof, baby was asleep and I was just sat in a chair, staring into space.

I think friend must have called mum and dad who collected their child and friend and they all attended hospital.

Well they could have been joking, bit hard to tell when you don't know them personally and you can't see their facial expressions.

Teens need specialized emotional and psychological care so yes they need paeds because of that reason alone.

Whether the patient they were bringing in was 15 or 17 and three quarters, they are still medically categorised as children and the paediatrics ward is where they go. They get treated by paediatric doctors and dispatched as paediatric patients.

15 years old.

If I was 15 I wouldn't want to be on a ward where anyone from 18 - 99 could be. I'd be much happier on a children's ward.

My other half went into the children hospital to have his stomach pumped after too much cider as a teen. I often think how annoyed I would have been if I was there with a child who wasn't sick because of their own stupidity!

Our paeds treats teenagers up to 18 for everything including mental health conditions such as anorexia and overdoses. It is absolutely where they need to be.Sometimes security are involved. I’ve been in a lot with my child. To be honest I think screaming babies/ toddlers and devices played loudly to amuse them are more of a problem but have obviously always been 100% understanding. One day your child will be a teenager and you will want them treated in the rightful place which is paeds.

Surely a small dehydrated child needs to be seen by a doctor? 😏

Presumably in a busy a and e they wouldn't be that impressed to take in a kid who stuck something up his nose either. It is understandable that any condition that could have been avoidable is more likely to be irksome to an overstretched team.

So would you be annoyed at a child who broke bones skateboarding? One who got a head injury horse riding? Messed about at GoApe? How about a toddler who ate some berries they shouldn’t have and got sick?

Children injure themselves “because of their own stupidity” all the time. It’s because they haven’t developed the mechanisms to do otherwise, and therefore take more risks than adults.

Paeds is an odd mix, I've been there a lot with my own teenager. It's full of sick babies and toddlers due to viruses, a stopping post for some babies with very difficult ongoing conditions, the odd appendicitis or sepsis that has kicked off in 3-11 year olds, and then you have the teenagers.

Ideally they have a teen section or a teen ward, depends on the size of the hospital. But the idea they are not used to teens in Paeds is completely wrong, it's probably a third of their intake, they have all the teens in that have had accidents, overdoses, alcohol poisoning, and in our Paeds a lot of eating disorder patients. I have seen them be tricky, loud, prone to run away, scream, be completely silent, require guards, be sectioned, all kinds. This is where they are assessed and many stay short stay before being discharged or going elsewhere.

In our hospital they take them in Paeds up to age 18 for eating disorders for which I am exceptionally grateful, my dd is 16-18 and the adult wards are not a great place for a distressed teen, or indeed a distressed adult oftentimes.

Our Paeds wards are well staffed, nurses and health care assistants fantastic and they often put the teens in their own rooms under observation so they don't have to go in with the littlies.

I can assure you that the screaming toddlers who are ill are just as disturbing to the teens as the other ways round, they can also be cute together, my dd made toys for the toddlers and played with them, so it's not all bad.