Hi there, thought i might tell a you all about something that happened over the weekend . I am a nurse and work part time at the local ED in the weekends. Saturday afternoon and im at the front desk doing triage and mum and dad walk in with there
wee one who looked about 3 and really pale. Dad was carrying baby and mum came up to me and told me that her girl had her tonsills out 2 weeks earlier and had been coughing up blood. Baby looked really white and had quite a bit of blood on her pjs. Now at this point im thinking "shit shit shit shit" and i take them straight into the department on to a bed and within seconds there were about 4 medical staff surrounding her and dad looked like he was going to pass out. At one stage there were 3 nurses and 2 doctors and the poor wee girl was so scared and she was crying and saying to the doctor " thats very dangerous, please stop it" as he was putting needles into her arm and two nurses were holding her down and my heart was breaking for her because she was so scared. The point of the story so far in my own rambling, badly spelt way is
* Any bleeding after anyone of any age has had their tonsills out is bad bad bad bad
* Call an ambulance
Well, the story continues. They finally managed to get an iv line in her arm after much crying (dad and baby and i will admit to a lump in my throat) and then all of a sudden mum and dad walk away and round the corner, i think they might have been going out far a smoke. Poor wee girl got so upset and everyone around her was really busy sorting out fluids to go up and organising the Paediatric emergency drus and resus pack and i just wanted to go over there and pick her up and cuddle her and make it all better but i couldn'T and then GRANDMA swooped in as if out of nowhere like a superhero, almost like she came out of nowhere and then all of a sudden there she was....She did a fantastic manouver to get straight in under all the wires and iv lines and around doctors that were standing all close together around the wee girl and she went straight up to the top of that bed to babys head and held her head in her hands, stroking her hair and started softly whispering to her and everything went quiet and it was abeautiful thing to watch so YAY for grandma. Mum and dad were back pretty quick, i felt so sorry for them, they were panicking, and i can't say i blame them, the doctor told me after that they were about 1minute away from putting in an intraosseous (don't quote me on the spelling) needle which is a hideous thing that reminds me of a giant cork screw that goes into the tibia bone which runs between the knee and ankle. Horrible Horrible Horrible things but they do a lifesaving job if they can't get iv access anywhere else (remember she has been bleeding, she is pale and she looks like s##t so her veins are pretty flat). Any more point to the story you ask, well...
*Stay with your kids, comfort them, touch them and talk to them
* nobody can tell you to leave
* stay calm and focus on the child, hysterics and yelling will not help the situation
* Grandmas rule
So the ambulance arrived and loaded her on to the trolley and took her to the tertiary hospital about 30minutes down the road where she was taken straight to the operating room. I was talking to the doc that went up with her the next day and he said they couldn't locate the source of the bleed so they ended up cauterising ( like a hot poker to the skin, it burns all the blood vessles shut and smells really bad as they are doing it) ) the whole area to make sure they stopped the bleed. She was fine apparently and will be sitting up eating icecream tomorrow for breakfast. A happy ending is always good. All that took about 45minutes to happen from beginning to end.
So, some advice for kids who have had their tonsills out
* have lots of paracetamol and/or nurofen at home
* soft foods(obviously)
* yoghurt is great for mouths, it keeps them nice and clean and is very soothing to eat when u have a sore throat
*Coughing alot is something to be aware of because it can sometimes cause bleeding by irritating/disturbing the wound
*Your child may cough up scabs from the wound at some stage
*Signs of infection are temperature, increasing pain, feeling unwell, lethargy
* Good fluid intake is important.
* I cannot stress enough that any bleeding needs to be investigated( see above story!!!)
So i think that is the end of my advice, Actually it might not even be advice, just the ramblings of a woman who spends far to little time in the company of adults and has a story she needed to tell.
(August 2007) (
