Matti’s Traumatic ER Experience
Good day dear read friends! Today, I'd like to share with you something that broke my heart and after this experience, I promise not to bring Matti to the hospital unless it is very very very necessary.
It was Tuesday when I noticed Matti’s palms were warm, he was showing some teething signs as he kept on putting his finger inside his mouth and was biting them. I thought that he is just teething and he is usually like that when teething. However when Wednesday came, after we went out to walk around Camella Homes Tagbilaran City for a short walk, it seemed like he was already hot.
That night, we watched a Netflix series named Silent Seas and we went to bed late, he was crying but he managed to sleep in my arms. He was sleeping the entire time while we were watching the series until we finished it past eleven in the evening, we actually started the first episode around 6:30 PM. I was already tired when the series finished and it seemed like Matti was already having a fever.
He was asleep but I could feel his body temperature and when he latched, I could also feel the warmness of his mouth. He isn’t like that every teething phase, but he has a lot of teeth now that I can’t figure out which one is going to rupture. Anyway, I placed him in bed but he woke up and started being fussy. He cried and cried, he even threw up because of too much crying. I decided to give him medicine after checking his body temperature and it was at 38.9. The medicine somehow helped, he was able to sleep.
The next morning, he was still feverish but he was his old self, he played with his toys, he ate breakfast but just a bit. Came at lunchtime and he won’t eat at all. I decided to just let him be and breastfeed him. That day, we went to an Italian restaurant in Tagbilaran City and dined in while also charging our devices. Matti ate pizza and was enjoying his time, he was still hot though but he was jolly so I thought he would be fine soon.
By the evening when we were at home at seven, he was already very fussy that he just wanted to be carried. He doesn’t want to walk, he doesn’t want to eat but thankfully, he would ask for milk. I breastfed him every time he asks for it even while we were at the public place.
Before going to bed, he was playing with some toys and then he just suddenly came to me and threw up. I was shocked because he was just okay before that time. Whenever he throws up, he would end up crying and crying so we have to comfort him first, clean him up, and attempt to calm him so he could sleep but he wouldn’t. It was already ten in the evening and he would just continue to cry.
We checked his body temperature and it was a whopping 39.4 degrees Celsius. We tried giving him medicine but he ended up throwing up again so my husband decided we take him to the ER for admission because we don’t know what to do.
ACE Medical Hospital was just close to where we are staying so we headed there. The ER only had one patient so we waited for our turn to be accommodated. It took some time before we were interviewed, I guess we had to wait for 20 minutes. Then Matti had a swab for COVID-19 test. The results came as negative, praise God! I was in fact worried that he might have caught the virus while we were out in the groceries the other day plus we brought him out to the neighborhood but thankfully, it was negative.
Then the nurse called Matti’s pediatrician Doc Valdez and confirmed Matti has to be given an IV. If I have known that this would result in Matti getting traumatized, I would have not brought him here in the first place.
So there were two male nurses, one of them wrapped Matti with a cloth to make sure he won’t be moving a lot during the insertion. It was very traumatic seeing my baby crying and just shouting mama, papa as if we were abandoning him.
The first attempt didn’t work, he said he didn’t find Matti’s veins and then the other nurse did his own attempt too which failed as well. Then they called a nurse from the NICU. The lady was sweet but she tried three times and the same trauma was done again and again which made us frustrated seeing Matti drenched with sweat and tears. I told them this must end.
After a few minutes, Matti had calmed down, he was carried by James and the nurse said we will just rest. Matti’s pedia will visit tomorrow morning and will assess if he needs to have an IV and if that’s needed, the doctor will do it herself.
True indeed we were checked in and we had a spacious room and it was comfortable but the nurses kept going in and out of our room and whenever someone comes inside with a PPE, Matti somehow remembers the traumatic experience he would cry out loud and would act as if he was afraid of that person. He won’t even want any thermometer in him while he wasn’t that way before.
Currently, we spoke to the nurses and the media about it to which she understood, taking medicine and getting a temperature would be done by us and we will just inform them about it via intercom.
I will update you further with our hospital experience and review soon. Thanks for reading!
xoxo,
momentswithmatti
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Unfortunately, there are very few nurses and resident doctors who have really mastered needle insertion for IV. That's not just in that hospital, even the tertiary hospitals in Manila lack them. I guess it's because training for that particular skill is not given as much focus. I am sorry Matti had to experience that. Where did they end up pricking him, on the hand or the foot? Because most doctors (the competent ones anyway) would already go for the foot if multiple unsuccessful attempts have been done on the hand. Even my Dad, and he was 70+ experienced severe bruising because the nurses and residents couldn't do it right several times.