we have had our LO now 28 weeks, so we know him pretty well. He gets transported to and from contact by a volunteer driver who has been the same driver for a good few months. The driver is the grandmother of kids that go to the same school as mine so I know that she is a very hands on granny.
LO is being rehab'd home. He is on as high as possible contact (7 days a week with 4 over nights now) There has been a few suspicious things mum has done in the last couple of weeks, but they are pushing on forwards. LO's SW has gone off sick, and I would bet my bottom dollar that this is his new SW's first job (no bad thing but not much life experience or job experience)
right back ground over....
Wednesday night, when LO arrived home, the driver was really concerned about him. He was listless, staring, not chatting to her like he always does, making really strange little noises. I looked in the car and immediately noticed that one of his eyes was drooping, and half closed, and his mouth was droopy on the same side.
I told the driver that I would keep an eye on him. Brought him in and he sat still on my knee (he is 17 months and usually is bouncing off the walls) I took him to the kitchen and did as I usually d0 and sat him in the highchair. He normally sits and bangs the spoon, or other odds and ends I put on the tray to keep him busy and or kicks his legs off the foot plate - he sat staring vacantly, his pupils were like pin pricks.
DH arrived home, now he is a great dad but isn't usually that observant if one of the kids is off colour - unless it is very noticeable. I said nothing to him about LO and he came in and literally took one look at him and could tell he wasn't right.
This was enough to make me feel that I wasn't being over cautious or suspicious, so I called the fostering team out of hours. It just happened to be my link worker that was on duty, so she told me to go and get him checked over.
so went to the minor injury unit/out of hours and was seen by a nurse. She took his temp it was up a little bit (37.5) and he did have a runny nose and a very slightly pink ear. However he has been much hotter and more ill in the time he has been here and never acted like this.
His heart rate was up a bit (140) and she noted that he was very listless and not full of life at all, by the time we got to the hospital he had picked up a bit, and over the hour and 1/4 that we sat in the cubical he gradually returned to what I would say was normal - so some 2.5 hours since he arrived back to me.
The nurse phoned the local hospital and spoke to a paediatric dr, who told her to monitor him for a while - hence the wait, but when he called back he told the nurse if he was back to his usual self, and I was happy with his condition to take him home.
Now the nurse said to me at the time she felt it was suspicious that he got so much better with no treatment, as surely he would be getting more and more tired - it was his bed time about 30 mins after we got there.
so spoke to my link worker and she told me to report it first thing. So I did this, spoke to his own SW who was going into a meeting so was going to pass it to someone else.
To cut a long story short, the course of action that was taken was to tell his parents that he had been unwell, and if he showed any signs of being unwell to take him to the GP or to the hospital.
I expressed my concern that he had been really acting very strange, and he looked and was acting like he was stoned/on something. And was told there was no evidence to support that was the case. I said well that is because there was no testing done, and was told that testing would be at the discretion of the Dr that dealt with him - you know the one that didn't clap eyes on him?
I phoned the fostering team really to get it on record that I am not happy that no further investigation was carried out.
Am I being unreasonable to be unhappy about how this has been handled?