Gina's Case History 04-2004 Ny

[Guest]

On an early Friday afternoon, my daughters (other daughter is 1yr old) were taken to a local fast food restaurant for lunch by my wife and their grandmother. My 2 ½yr old had a hamburger and fries and the other daughter had just fries. My wife and daughters’ grandmother had something else other than beef. A few hours later my 2 ½yr old daughter began complaining of “tummy ache - hurts” pain and had vomited. Thinking only of a simple symptom it was passed off as general illness. About another hour later she vomits again. Concern grows, as this is abnormal of our daughter’s behavior. She begins to complain more about “tummy” pain and vomits for a third within that hour. Its about four hours after lunch that this all begins. <BR> <BR>My 2 ½yr old is driven to the ER since it was past the normal pediatrician clinic hours. My daughter again vomited in the waiting room of the ER and was bumped ahead of other patients waiting to be seen. After about a 20-minute examination it was concluded that my daughter had a viral infection. <BR> <BR>The following morning my daughter seemed near lifeless and refused to eat or drink and was very sluggish. She was due to go to the clinic for a follow up visit anyway so she was taken first thing. Once she arrived our pediatrician immediately noticed our daughters paleness and ‘lack of motivation.’ She told (them) to immediately rush her to the ER due to dehydration. My daughter was so weak that she didn’t flinch or utter a word when the IV was put in her. At this time she began to have diarrhea and spiking a high temperature. She was admitted into the hospital to be monitored for dehydration. A few hours later (by this time it’s the afternoon) an order for an antibiotic was induced through her IV to ‘help treat a viral infection.’ Tylenol was given during her spikes of fevers. She continued on this throughout the night but she still was sluggish. <BR> <BR>The following morning (Sunday) she was slightly better but undergone a series of tests, to include blood work, x-ray and urine samples. All of which came back negative and still pointing to a viral infection. (we were not informed of the exact lab work prescribed but that it was the word from the attending that test were taken) Her condition improved later that afternoon and it was decided by that night that her IV intake would decrease to help her replenish her fluids on her own. She was feeling better but still had the diarrhea. <BR> <BR>Monday morning she was discharged and back to her normal self, with the exception that she really didn’t eat or drink much of anything. And as before she was discharged without any meds or need to do so. By this afternoon she again started to complain about ‘tummy aches’. Our daughter would pick up words and phrases and play around with imitating past experiences by applying them to her routine of jokes and fun. So at first it was ignored, thinking she was imitating herself from the prior days. She was still running around and being that terrible-two type of child that we all knew and loved. By the evening time it was noticed that she hadn’t really been drinking a lot and she kept complaining about pain. And her bowels began to stink. At this time it wasn’t a cause for a trip to the ER but she was closely monitored and did have a restless night. <BR> <BR>Tuesday morning and bright and early the rescue was called to the house. Whatever she had came back and with a powerful punch. She kept her knees close to her and the bowels were more intense. We decided to go by ambulance just so there wouldn’t be a wait in the waiting room. She was dehydrated again and this time we wanted answers. Again she was admitted and this time was taken down for a CT scan. All blood labs and CT tests came back negative. The nurses and doctors were baffled and didn’t know what to do. By early afternoon, her one diarrhea episode had mucous and a trace of visible blood in the diaper. It was suggested that a second opinion from a surgical doctor be taken and by Tuesday night a surgeon finally evaluated her. He suggested that we take her to a children’s hospital (about 3hrs away). Before the night was done, a final blood test was done for food poising and para-something. It was around 10:30pm when we got the ’go-ahead’ from the children’s hospital to transport our daughter to their facility. There was just two catches to this.. One is that they wanted to send their own ALS transport team to us to pick her up. Second, they had a policy that they couldn’t accept riders… not even her own mother. But, we didn’t know that until they told us within a half hour of their arrival. <BR> <BR>By now its early 3am Wednesday morning and I am trailing behind the transport for 3hrs. We get to the new hospital and they take our daughter into the pediatrics trauma area. And because this hospital is also the largest for its state and located next to collage, you could imagine all the interns, wanna-be’s and med students galore. As soon as we arrived our daughter had four doctors assigned to her. Only one of them was a graduated doctor but the rest were either interns or students but were specialized in the field of pediatrics. They ran the same battery of test but they also included an ultrasound, which by the way turned up positive for gall stones. Faint little stones, but it was determined that it wasn’t interfering with our daughter’s urine. I forgot to mention this from the beginning but the other side effect that my daughter had her inability to urinate. She had gone almost two days before finally going. Shortly after noontime she was admitted to the children’s ward and placed in room closest to the nurses station, in other words they put her in ICU but didn’t make it sound like that. She was constantly poked and prodded, touched and observed. There must have been about twenty people taking her vitals all day today. It was no wonder that she began hating every nurse or doctor that came into the room. With all their high tech equipment and the hours of asking questions, it was still baffled as to the cause of our daughter’s problems. She continued on an IV and monitored. <BR> <BR>Geesh… It’s Thursday and our daughter still has pain and constant diarrhea. She begins to lighten up a bit but screams in pain whenever she feels like going. Urinating has also pick up a tad but not as normal as one would get having an IV pushed through your body. Still no answers, but tons of questions. By early afternoon, our daughter finds the strength to want to get out of bed and walk. She notices a playroom and wants to play but gets cut short by an extreme poopy diaper. A few more times of almost forcing herself up she plays some more and gets a bit more active. Her condition begins to improve and she asking to eat and drink more. Around 2pm, she has exhausted herself and falls asleep for a nap. My wife and I, seeing this opportunity to also get some sleep, join her. About an hour in a half later we awoke and notice a big yellow sign outside our and one of the medics entering our room with a hospital gown and gloves on. He begins to explain to us that it was just recently confirmed that our daughter had contracted the C Diff. infection and that precautions were now in place by the staff. Before we could ask more he had to leave on an emergency call from his beeper and wouldn’t hear back from him until later that evening. All he basically said was that our daughter had a very bad infection and explained how it worked in the colon and that we shouldn’t be in the common/public areas of the hospital since the spores could be transmitted. When he left the room we immediately called everyone that had been visiting us to wash their clothes, take showers and monitor themselves. We didn’t know any other detail of this C Diff since he told when we just on the verge of waking up and then not being able to ask questions. We couldn’t even remember the name of what he said this was. And because this hospital has tons of students, interns and double-shift staff… it was like pulling teeth to get any answers. Our daughter had begun to improve her condition and was eating and drinking a lot more, but still no concrete answers. Finally around 8pm we were told everything and apparently it stemmed back from the last test at the other hospital that found the infection, but they never notified this hospital that we were at. The news only happened because one of the interns (who by the way was the primary care-giver from day one at this children’s hospital) made a call to the other hospital for more information and they gave him one of those “… oh by the way, we found a positive test for C. Diff…” Nice, huh? After hearing more about this my wife and I begin to feel sorry that our child was playing with other children, using most of the toys and walking around freely throughout the ward. We didn’t know, what could we have done? So now we are confined to this room and our daughter is fighting and screaming to get out and play. Other patients and parents see us huddled in our room with “Infection Control Procedures” taped to our door, and we wonder if they look down on us for having their child exposed. Our daughter is given a dose of Flagyl and her IV has also come off since she no longer needed it. Our night goes restless as we try to contain our daughter and entertain her until she goes to sleep. You try doing that with only Disney videos and hospital equipment…! It’s not easy. <BR> <BR>Friday morning and we are allowed to go home in the afternoon. They give us a five-day supply of Flagyl and “…hope all is well…” and we are leaving the hospital around 3pm. We wanted to leave because it was getting too hard to contain our hyper-active daughter and really needed for us to be locked-down in our own home since there was no more need for an IV or monitoring… and also since they found the real reason for her being sick.