VENT:Autumn had her upper gi and ph probe...horrible experience

[Guest guest]

Hi. We got back yesterday from Autumn's studies, they were an

absolute nightmare. We were there by 10:30 and got admitted then

went to radiology for the probe. 2.5 hours later at 1 it got put in

over 2 hours late. Then they had problems with the room and

transport to take us there, we were sent out to the waiting room for

a 'couple' of minutes. Autumn was screaming, gagging, vomiting spit

and mucous, drooling and we were in the waiting room! WE should have

been in the hospiatal room by then! Then 15 minutes passed, I went

up to the desk adn they made phonecalls and then I was told the room

wouldn't be ready until 1:45 although it should have been ready at

10! Then transport never came. Autumn was still gagging and vomitin

and dripping wet with drool, she was too scared to swallow so her

mouth was hanging open and by now summer was hungry and just

screaming. I went up and said I needed a supervisor now, then I just

started to cry. Now I am not a crier, especially in public so it was

horrible. Finally a manager came and after about 15 more minutes

later we were taken to a room but not in the place we originnaly had

a room reserved. We get up there I demand she drinks something (she

wouldn't immediatly after the probe but was thirsty) they tried

saying no because her recording box wasn't hooked up yet but I said

it had been hours since she had anything so they need to come up now

or she will drink! So she got a drink adn finally by 3 they hooked

the box up for recording. The probe was then loose around the nose

(it was tape\d on the cheek) and no one could figure how to tape it

right up there and keep it from moving so it made her gag and they

kept tryign and didn't kow what to do. I ended up having to tell

them to use one of those things that are used to keep oxygen tubes in

place, this was done at 10 p.m.

Doctors were coming in and asking why is she having this done? Why

did a surgeon order it and not a gi doctor? Why are we here? I was

asked this numerous times over the visit. There was constant

misinformation and I kept being passed off to the next person. I was

told they would be back at 9 to take out the probe adn by 9:30 next

morning no one came. Finally someone found out I was supposed to

call some number to let them know when she had last ate and they

would be there 2 hours later. I had another manager come and

everything was just a big mess. No one told me anythign, no one in

this wing knew about probes, it turns out the original place we were

told we were staying that morning was the place these tests were

done, so they were clueless here. I was also told to push the button

during her eating and crying/ gagging but they failed to mention push

it 2 times to hear the beep, I realized this later on that night

after a problem so a lot of stuff at first was not recorded.

Then came the upper gi after the probe was out. We got in on time

but over 1 hour of 3 people and me trying and we could not get Autumn

to drink any barium out of a bottle, cup/straw, syringe, some strange

contraption they made didn't work, they added chocolate to

it....nothing, a couple of drops got down her throat so she threw it

up. Finally they needed to ng tube her to give her barium. The

whole experience was a nightmare.

I was advised by the manager in radiology to file a complaint with

the hospital about the problems with the probe and room. I will be

doing that soon.

Thanks for listening.

mom to Autumn 20.5 mos RSS, Summer, Ocean, Skye