Woman take him to the ER!

[Luckymom]

This story is about 3 years old.

I used to work in a pediatric urology clinic. I am not going to say where or any names to avoid breaking any laws but this woman about drove me nuts. I felt really bad for her son.

M:Me
W:Woman
N: Nurse


M: Good afternoon, Luckymom, how can I help you today?
W: I need a Doctor to see my son now.
M: Ok ma'am what seems to be his problem.
W: Goes into graphic detail describing what is called testicular torsion.
M: Ma'am you need to take your son to the "Children's Hospital" that our doctors go to immediatley. Dr. Smith (generic name) will be there to see you.
W: I took him to the ER here at County Hospital and they didn't do nothing for him.
M: Ok you need to take him to Children's now, what you are describing could cause your son serious harm. They will look at him there and determine what needs to be done.
W: We can't afford to go to the ER again, can't the Doctor in office just look at him there.
(It's 4:30 our Doctor for the day is seeing her last patient and she is not on call, no way in hell is she going to stick around.)
M: I am sorry ma'am our doctors prefer to see these cases in the hospital so if a procedure is needed to correct the problem they can fix it immediately.
W: Well you are no help let me talk to a nurse.
(I think we are going in circles here)

(I go get our nurse and she comes up to my phone)
N: (after listening to the woman) Ma'am go to Children's immediately.
(I don't know what the woman said)
N: Look if you don't go you risk your son never having children again.

The nurse hangs up the phone.

I felt so sorry for her son, all I could think was how long had she let him go through that pain before taking him in. I seriously doubt she took him to an ER the day before. They would not of released him. Found out later it was torsion and required surgery.

[BookstoreEscapee]

OK, I have a vague idea of what that is and I'd be surprised if the kid wasn't screaming for the last 2 days. If I called the doctor's office and described something and they said "you need to go to the hospital now" I would not be arguing...I'd worry about the money later. Ouch.

And I love how YOU are no help but a nurse tells her the same thing and she listens...

[Silvercat]

And I love how YOU are no help but a nurse tells her the same thing and she listens...

Of course. A nurse is a medical profession and BE is just a reciptionist.

[Banrion]

WOW, I've never heard of that, and found some scary info.

Testicular torsion is a medical emergency that needs immediate treatment. After 6 hours there is about 12% chance of saving the testicle, and after 8 hours the possibility is decreased further.[citation needed] Once the testicle is dead it must be removed to prevent gangrenous infection.

[Drakstern]

I've heard of this problem before, in the oddest place.

GO TEAM VENTURE!

[Misanthropical]

If she refuses to take the child to the ER, couldn't they charge her with child abuse? Why would a mother worry more about money than her child that is screaming in pain? I just can't wrap my mind around that.

[zzapp the witch]

Strange that that subject should come up, was discussing it with my drywaller today (he's a friend), told him he should get it checked out.

Oddly enough, I was referencing the Venture Bros. while talking to him.

Go Team Venture, indeed.

[Luckymom]

If she refuses to take the child to the ER, couldn't they charge her with child abuse? Why would a mother worry more about money than her child that is screaming in pain? I just can't wrap my mind around that.

The sheer stupidity of some of the parents I dealt with while working in the urology clinic was mind boggling. Parents can lie lie lie through their teeth. I used to also schedule the appointments at the hospital for the MRIs and CTs, I have a doosey of a story with one of those too.

[powerboy]

Worrying about money, when the child needs to be in ER. If that was me, I would take my child, instead of calling to find out what to do.

[myswtghst]

I vote child abuse as well. People kind of suck sometimes.

And I do know what this condition is, as one of my coworkers when I valeted had to miss work because of it. I only found out because my manager couldn't do his paperwork, and often had me do it for him, so I saw all my coworkers files that were supposed to be "privet and confidential."

[Cedophile]

On behalf of malekind, this lady needs a slapping!

GOD that scares the crap out of me. Poor kids who go through this with parents who second-guess the shrieking "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" that their sons are doing.

[Jester]

Okay, I know how mad I was at my mom when she wouldn't believe me when I broke a finger when I was a kid. Several days of pain before she finally took me to see a doctor and he told her, yes, your son's finger is broken. (Amusingly, it was my middle finger. Great material for a ten year old.)

That was my FINGER!

Not my huevos.

I would not be surprised if, in 10-20 years, we read about this kid weedwacking his mother's head off her shoulders. Would YOU?

[trunks2k]

Okay, I know how mad I was at my mom when she wouldn't believe me when I broke a finger when I was a kid. Several days of pain before she finally took me to see a doctor and he told her, yes, your son's finger is broken. (Amusingly, it was my middle finger. Great material for a ten year old.)

My mom's a nurse and had a habit of doing this sort of thing with us since she was capable of taking care of a lot of injuries herself (sprained ankles, etc). When it comes to her, if she suggests you go to a doctor, then you know there's something wrong. And my dad is bery much a "walk it off" type of person. There's at least two things we'll never let my mom and dad live down:

1. My brother used to play tennis and basketball. He sprained his ankle several times. My mom brought an aircast home from work and just had him use that when he sprained it. The sprains tended to get a bit worse every time. One day he sprained it particularly badly, and again was put in the aircast and on crutches. But he kept complaining that it clearly hurt more than normal. My mom was in the hospital after an operation and we were visiting her and my dad, tired of my brother's complaining, told him that we're in a hospital so let's get it x-rayed. My brother refused, thinking my dad was just being sarcastic. A few days later his ankle is no better and my mom decides that it actually needs to be x-rayed. The doc comes out with the x-ray and asks my mom if my brother has ever broken his ankle before. Looking at the ankle, which should be a smooth line, was all jagged. Turns out all those previous "sprains" were tiny fractures and slight tearing of the ligament from the ankle (which takes a small piece of bone with it).

2. When I was little, mainly between grades 3 and 7, my knee would hurt after running around. I'd complain about it after every basket ball practice and basketball game. My parent's used to think I was just being whiney and there was nothing wrong with me. Until 6th grade. I was playing tennis and running cross court, I stepped down on my right leg and suddenly it was like my leg was no longer there. All the support just left my leg, I heard a few pops, fell to the ground and my knee erupts in pain. My mom comes down to take a look at it and help carry me off the court. All the while I'm on the verge of tears and yelling at her "SEE! I TOLD YOU MY F*#@#* KNEE HURT!" Went to the doctors the next day to have it looked at. He tells me I have a really weak muscle in the knee, that I was lucky I didn't end up tearing anything and needing surgery, and it's surprising that it just suddenly happened, surely I had been in pain after running around before? My face lit up, pointed to my mom, and I just said "Yeah, it's been hurting for years! But SHE never listened to me!" On the car ride home she said "You're never going to let me forget this, are you?"

[draftermatt]

oh wow. I just was reminded of my own stuff.

I was playing baseball and suddenly got a shooting pain through my knee. I told my parents who ignored it. I happened to be at the doctor's and my mom asked me to mention my knee (kind of sarcastically). The doc took one look at it and grabbed this small ball of skin under my knee cap. My mom said I looked like I wanted to punch the doc it hurt so bad.

Turns out I had something called Osgood Slater's which I eventually got in both knees.

When I broke my thumb my mom figured it was jammed and didn't want to do anything, but took me to the doctor because I was in so much pain. Turns out it was broken.

Lots of the "growing pains" my parents thought I had are still issues at the age of 22. Hmm.

1. My brother used to play tennis and basketball. He sprained his ankle several times....

Does your brother have any lasting affects because of not getting it checked out?

[Luckymom]

I will say my parents were the walk it off types. I remember when I broke my sisters toes. SHe was climping in the hallway via spiderman style and I opened the hallway door knocking her off the ceiling. Yeah smooth move.

Anyway we called my mom at work and my mom said and I quote. "Tell your sister to get off her lazy butt and get her room cleaned before I get home." She didn't believe us. Then again I can see why we were rough kids and always had bumps of some sort, and it rarely turned into anything more than a scrape or sprain.

I also remember when I got scarlet fever at 13, I had a whole slew of sore throats that year. All coming back negative with strep tests. So the one time my mom didn't take me in, is the one time I actually had strep which developed into scarlet fever.