to have NOT called an ambulance?

[LaaDeDa]

DS, aged 14 months, fell down the stairs from the very top on Tuesday eve. He rolled over 3 times, landed on his back, cried immediately, had blood coming from his mouth and nose and got up.
I was out but dp sorted out the bleeding and checked him all over and then observed him playing, laughing etc for about an hour until he became tired and went to bed (he'd been on his way to bed when the original accident happened). By the time i came in he was asleep but able to be woken so we kept checking him through the night.
The next morning he vomited so i took him to local minor injuries who asked why we hadn't called an ambulance the night before.
My reasons for not were - how he'd responded following the fall basically. If i'd have felt he was non-responsive or vomiting through the night i would have done (and at the first bout of sickness did go to the hospital) so i was quite surprised they expected the emergency service to be used in that circumstance.
I really thought we'd done the right things and attended hospital at the right point so am genuinely surprised that the use of an ambulance at that moment would have not been wasting the resources.

So - in those circumstances would you have phoned an ambulance? Or am i the meanest, stupidest mummy going - as you can tell i am thinking that yes, i am :-(

oops it wasn't your original link, sorry!

Your son is fine - you did do ok - doesn't mean though that we can't think you could have/should have done something else and we would do that in your place. You did ask if this was reasonable - I don't want to make you feel worse - no reason why you should but I would have acted differently.

I would suggest that you need to carry your son upstairs until he is a little older and able to react more appropriately, realising the danger. A fall down a full flight of stairs has horrible potential - don't let this happen again. I was hoovering our bathroom when my daughter was 11 months old. I'd left her downstairs with dh and forgotten to shut the stairgate. She climbed all the stairs and the first I knew of it was seeing her face peek over the edge of the top step. Behind her were 14 very steep and narrow stairs - basically a 12 foot fall. I didn't dare move towards her too quickly so had to wait whilst she climbed the top step and I could then grab her. Not a mistake I ever made again!!!

Oh no that's cool, I am very bored so just helping out, where I can.

As others have said, I wouldn't have called an ambulance but I would absolutely have taken him to A&E in the circumstances you describe.

DS2 fell of a worksurface at about that age - don't ask - and we took him in as there's no way I could have slept with the 'what if' thoughts. He was fine and in fact the medical advice was to do exactly what you did - observe and take him back if he was sick.

Don't beat yourself up though, you and DH did what you thought was best and he's fine. You'll be hard pushed to find any parent who hasn't made a bum decision at some point. Incidently, my ds2 also has reflex anoxic seizures and although we don't take him to hospital for that anymore, I do watch out for and regualarly see threads on here from parents who say things like 'last night my baby went all stiff and stary and blue lipped and fell over, should I go and see a GP' . At least you took him to hospital when you got concerned.

SB - blood from the nose can be a sign of problems (and any blood from the ears would obviously have me ringing 999 faster than you could spit) but there really was no sign of head injury (based on what the OPs said).

Sassybeast, that's quite interesting for future reference. In this case the DC is quite young...but if I DH or one of my (older) DCs falls off a horse/down skiing/down stairs etc and gets a nose bleed, is the advice that we should seek medical attention? These calls are very difficult to make - for instance it seems here (where I live) that if you call an ambulance for a fall from a horse they routinely send the air ambulance (sometimes as well as a normal one), which seems a hell of a waste of taxpayers' money for a bloody nose where you hit the ground! But maybe we are under-cautious?

I have a medical background and I think its fair to say medically speaking an ambulance call or prompt trip to A&E is the correct path to have followed,BUT,it can be very hard to make that judgement on the day and even with a medical degree it can be difficult so don't feel bad,just take the experience on for next timex

Dip - I think the danger though with a fall like that is the risk of a closed head injury ? Having said that, some of the saddest cases I ever looked after in Neuro ITU were people who'd fallen from the bottom step of a blooming loft ladder and from a caravan step! But interesting that you mention about horse falls (having tumbled 2 days ago without a scratch) - they tend to be neck and spinal injuries so perhaps that's why they send the air crew ? I would ALWAYS err on the side of caution with any head/neck injury but I'm probably over cautious

I would have called ambulance immediately. Neither DH nor I have medical background and regardless of thinking of ourselves as quite knowledgeable in regards to general health issues and run of the mill accidents, i would NEVER take a chance with my DC like this.
Case in point, the recent tragic death of Natasha Richardson... [sad)
So you were very unreasonable.

I think sometimes you can be made to feel like you are wasting the doctors/nurses/hospitals time and they are slightly humouring you because with the benefit of their medical training they know which things are potentially serious and which are not but which still may be concerning for the parent and cause you to attend the doctors/hospital.

I would have been prepared for 'why didn't you take him to a+e?'. It was really the use of 999 which surprised me in the circumstances i have described - and thanks to the thread i can see i'm not alone in being surprised at that.

Sorry Diplodocus - wasn't you who mentioned horses - crap eyesight!

Well if there had been internal bleeding he could have deteriorated quickly and become unconscious and needed breathing support so if he were in your car there would be a risk.

Laadeedaa - I think that's part of the problem - some A&E departments aren't that empathetic/sympathetic so you CAN feel as if you are being a nuisance. but trust me - getting a little kid checked over is a welcome diversion for them from the drunks and ingrowing toe nails

Sassybeast - thanks! I think in future i will just be a nuisance and let the professionals decide. Was a very worrying night. And day actually as although the vomiting is probably unrelated to the fall it could not be 100% ruled out so we were kept in all day while they observed him.

Not sure if he was more fun than a drunk though - he screamed anytime a doctor came near him. First a+e doctor (young guy) was getting quite peed off with being unable to examine him properly. He's just so strong i couldn't hold him still.

LOL at him fighting off the doctor - sure sign he's done himself no permanent damage!

I'm really shocked that they had a go at you for not calling an ambluance. One of my dts fell out of a first floor window and I was told to drive him to A&E and only pull over and call and ambulance if he got worse. I wouldnt dream of claling one in the situation you describe.

He was really going for it!
Wouldn't have the blood pressure thing on his toe (had to do it when he fell asleep lol), was NOT impressed with looking at the magic torch and when he would look at it and stop crying it was when it was about 2 feet away from him so no use to the dr at all! Cried when he had to sit on the scales, cried when the dr took my temp so he could see the thermometer in my ear and perhaps entertain having it in his ear.
Waited until about 5 drs were having a discussion just outside the door then puked lavishly in the centre of the room (and just as they'd been thinking about discharging him too).

I drove my DD to A&E with a nearly broken ankle and I was told I should have called an ambulance, because I was unable to help her when she went into shock on the way.

I'd have definately taken a 14 month old to A+E straight away if he'd had fallen from the top step, and seeing the blood would have freaked me out.

We took our daughter who was about 18 months to A+E when she fell off a chair and landed smack on her forehead. Immediately a huge egg formed and i was running around like a headless chicken , while my OH put a cold compress on it and calmly strapped her in her car seat.

By the time we got there, which was about 10 mins, she was happily playing with her toys and the triage nurse was saying "ooh thats a lovely lump you got there isnt it "

I was like and thinking "wtf!! my daughter is critically ill and has a brain bleed and swelling and needs surgery, yet you are playing with her??!!!"

But after she informed us that having a visible lump was much better than having an internal one, and the fact that my daughter was busy kissing another toddler! i felt that she did actually know what she was talking about

I wouldn't of phoned an ambulance but I would of taken my DD to A & E. Just to be sure.

Last year my friends dd, who was 16 months at the time, fell off a chair at a M&T group and smacked her head on the hard floor. She had blood coming from her mouth and my friend was panicking and called an ambulance. Her dd lost her two front teeth but was fine in every other way. Looking back now i can see her calling an ambulance was way ott. It always looks worse when blood is coming from the mouth!

I think yanbu for not calling an ambulance although i would have taken him to a&e.

Hard one to call and you have to trust your judgement. DS fell badly down stairs, lost consciousness briefly, I did call ambulance they sent paramedic who was lovely, checked him out suggested we did go to A&E and called ambulance but DS wouldn't go in it so took him ourselves. We were not made to feel like time wasters in any way even though DS was fighting him off (being grumpy can actually be a sign of something amiss apparently). In the end he came home and we kept checking all night. No lasting damage.

ohmeohmy - the being grumpy explains why first a+e dr got his boss to come and check too. Ds had been unwilling to be examined (see above ^^ lol) but when he came back with other dr, ds was happily playing with toys and only got grumpy when it looked like somebody was about to touch him.
They didn't actually tell me that could be a bad sign though. I knew it was just ds not liking being messed with cos he fights against every nappy change like that!