For a moment, an emergency room doctor stepped away from the scrum of people working on Rory Staunton, 12, and spoke to his parents.
"Your son is seriously ill," the doctor said.
"How seriously?" Rory's mother, Orlaith Staunton, asked.
The doctor paused.
"Gravely ill," he said.
How could that be?
So begins a heartbreaking piece by Jim Dwyer in the New York Times this morning -- one that will have you hugging your children and, I suspect, second-guessing your doctor then next time your own child gets sick.
A cut on the arm during a basketball game led to full-blown sepsis, which killed Rory three days later. Along the way well-intentioned doctors (and imperfect systems) missed warning signs and just plain didn't hear what Rory's parents were telling them.
As Dwyer writes:
"We showed her the cut on his elbow, and I saw her follow up his arm from the cut," Ms. Staunton said. "She said, 'The cut's not an issue.' She focused on his stomach. We said, 'Although you see him throwing up, that's not what he's really complaining about.' Rory and I both said to her that it's the pain in his leg that's really bothering him."
And it was the pain in his leg that was, with clear hindsight, a sign of "invasive" infection.
The next day, when Rory was so weak that he could barely get to the bathroom, the family called for help again:
The doctor suggested fluids and crackers."'I told her, 'I'm not sure you're getting the picture...' " Mr. Staunton said. "'I can't even get him to sit up. I don't know how you expect me to get food into him.' "
As I read Rory's tale I thought of the time my son's pediatrician said it was just a lingering cold and the X-rays (which I insisted on) showed double pneumonia. And of the time the doctor said "every parent thinks their child's snores are apnea, it's rarely really apnea," but it was. Or the time when the doctor told us to encourage our second grader to walk on his "just bruised" leg, which turned out to be a spiral fracture of the tibia.
I also know that in every one of those cases the doctors were caring, and concerned, and knew their medicine.
But they didn't know my child like I did.
The reason the Staunton's turned over Rory's medical files to Dwyer, they said, was "we know that Rory would want no other child to go through what he went through."
Nor any other parent.
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Unfortunately cases such as this occur, which in days of old would have been given antibiotics as a precautionary measure. The answer to the problem is obvious, test test test, don't just presume, if your not certain of your diagnosis, TEST.
Surely Doctors see enough patients to know the signs of a hypochondriac over the genuine concern of a mother's intuition.
No one benefits from the kind of arm-chair quarterbacking and baseless questioning of integrity that permeates so many of these posts.
Its sad that its become so in vogue to demonize doctors.
People are so quick to criticize until suddenly they need one.
The next morning, her colleague called, panicked, to say his bloodwork showed a "severe" bacterial infection. She had no idea he'd been seen by her colleague and was already on meds.
Two hours later, her nurse called to say that his strep swab was negative and I should discontinue the antibiotics. I said no. The child has a severe bacterial infection. She argued with me and I told her to check his chart. "Oh. Sorry. Definitely continue the medication."
If my son had a less educated parent (I am a medical writer) he might be dead. We're lucky that I know what I know and I am willing to be That Parent who bears the scathing looks and attitude of our doctors. It's pathetic that all parents need to get educated and micromanage our families' medical care, but that's the state of things. My heart breaks for the Staunton family. There is no excuse for the laziness and hubris that killed their son.
When someone dies needlessly it is tragic, but when it is through medical neglect it's unforgivable.
Me: Good grief, were all these mistakes made by the same doctor? If so, I'd get another doctor!