My youngest had spinal meningitus and a staph infection in his spinal column before he ever left the hospital. He was poked and proded, spinal taps, injections, etc.. like crazy the first 20 days of his life. Newborns don't have many viable veins so they put IVs in the scalp and the foot before trying other places. The injections they gave him when they didn't have an IV going were in his thighs. They told me he might have problems with the development of the muscles because of it.

Because of the whole thing (I think at least) whenever he gets a fever it's very high...104, etc.. When he was 18 months old, I picked him up from day care and he was literally broiling. Called the pediatritian and they kept the office open waiting for me. They were afraid he had spinal meningitus again. They told me they had to do a spinal tap again. They can't use any anesthetic when they do them. My 6'4", 240lb husband (at the time) along with a couple of other people had to physically remove me from the room after they started. I don't know whose cries where louder..his or mine. Thankfully he didn't have a recurrence.

This kid to this day has a total aversion to needles. When he broke his jaw in a car accident at the age of 4..they needed to start an IV in the ER. It took 4 people to hold him down enough to get the IV started. I knew they had to do it and he fought like it was for his life. When they had to redo the IV a day later, they sent this huge orderly into his hospital room. The guy talked to him for a bit and then cradle my son closed to him and laid down on the bed on top of him. He struggled and screeched. When they were done and the guy let him go, James glared at him and as clear as any adult he said "I hate you" .

Jesus PK -

Spinal meningitis has a mortality rate I don't even want to think about. I would have shit my pants if that happened to me when my son was born.

I seriously can think of NOTHING worse than that. Spinal Taps are 100,000 X worse than a needle. Not only do they hurt worse than a broken bone, but then you get the headache from hell and you want to die. I have seen a spinal tap bring a grown man to tears.

Consider yourself BLESSED that he made it through.

I thought it was bad when my son was born and he had to have his stomach pumped. I almost passed out watching that. Having to go through watching my infant baby struggle with infant spinal meningitis would END ME.

Do they know where he got the infection from?

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

God I'm glad I live in Canada

DH

lol.
Nothing like that QUALITY Health Care System Canada has...

mr smegma, i'd have a little chat with my pediatrician about that five shots at one time thingy. that sounds terribly wrong.

on a side note, when i was little, they used to strap me in this contraption called a "papoose" for shots and stuff. (i had a reputation for hitting doctors :Graucho) i don't suppose they use papooses anymore. i guess they're probably now considered cruel.

Anybody seen John Q?

Mate being a paramedic for 10 years I would agree with you I don't give a shit if your man or female if you hurt my kids and you are supposed to be helping them im going to go ape shit. :thumbsup mate! Sounds like you at least know what the hell a nurse is supposed to do. I will tell ya this if the first time I had to remind some dumb ass nurse to clean the area She wouldnt be sticking him with no needle. Some people are so freaking stupid and shit it makes you sick.

Hope your kid doest get any infecctions from it.
PEACE and good luck mate

TOM

OMG OMFG I would of died plain and simple there is nothing I can say on this but OMFG that is some scary stuff PK I have been lucky that none of my kids have had to go through anything like this. IF they are anything like I was growing up IM SCREWED and I just hope I c an have the strength to handle it.

TOM

Two :thumbsup :thumbsup for your doc!!!

I was in a Mountain Bike accident a few years back which caused a compression fracture of my 3rd lumbar vertabrae. I had to have a spinal tap to see if there was any blood in my spinal fluid or something like that.

I would not wish that kind of pain on anyone. It breaks my heart to think that an infant would have tp go through something like that.

I don't have any kids, but a few years ago I was almost a Daddy but mother nature decided otherwise. I think some of that paternal instinct is still with me, so when I hear about a child in distress it makes me very upset indeed. We're the grown ups, we're the ones that have to guide and protect our young ones & when someone (i.e. an incompetent or uncaring health care orovider) violates the trust of a child and causes them pain, it is a bad reflection on all grown ups in that child's eyes.

When I was an EMT we responded to a bad (I mean BAD) car accident where one child was already gone and the other was in critical condition. Her name was Karen and she was 7 years old. Her and her family were on their way home from a waterslide park when they were sideswiped by a drunk driver who ran a red light and slammed into them at over 100 km/hr. Her father and her brother were killed on impact and Karen was trapped in the minivan. The Paramedics worked on her Mother while myself and another EMS tried to save Karen. She was in bad shape but concious. She asked me my name so I told her. She looked up at me and said "I'm scared..." then the light just seemed to fade from her eyes... I started CPR and didn't stop for over 45 minutes until a supervisor told me to stop. She died in my arms.

The driver of the car was being read his rights at the time, and he didn't seem all that concerned about what he had done, either that or he didn't know so I decided to clue him in. I grabbed the sonofabitch by the handcuffs and led him over to Karen's body. I pulled back the sheet and put his face just inches from hers and told him "YOU did this, this is YOUR fault! You killed this girl, her father and her brother, and you put her mother in the Hospital. Do you understand? Are you sober enough to understand that you piece of shit or do I need to give you some epicac so you will be?" He started crying not unlike I am starting to right now.

I quit that job the next day. I still have nightmares about Karen, and that happened over 13 years ago. If I could have, I would have given my life for hers at that moment. I swear I would.


Exxxotica, not one word out of you. Not one fucking word.

I don't even know what to say. I'm generally not a compasionate person... but I'm nearly in tears.

Dumb bitch. That makes me mad just reading this. :feels-hot

Smegma - Damn right you shoulda been pissed. I woulda, too.

PK - Oh my, that would tear my heart out to watch one of my kids go through stuff like that. Like va2k, I am lucky that my children have been relatively lucky in the doctor respect.

Stealthy - oh my. oh my.

haha, i once went to a doctor in USA (i was 16 y o )

the fucker made me 1 shot, asked if i have any health problems (answer was: no) probed with stethoscope for 5 secs and charged me $65 (sixty five bucks) :BangBang:

He had to have gotten it in the hospital because neither of us had left there...luckily and unluckily... the whole story goes.... he has to be taken by C-section.. somewhere during that they clipped my lower intestine. They of course don't let you go home till all the plumbing is working and it wasn't. During this time (at 8 days) James came down with a fever. He showed none of the other typical sign of spinal meningitus. If we had both been home after a day like I was with my first, I would of figured his fever was a bug and taken him to the peds doc and would of figure my problem was just recovering. Both of these problems could of killed either of us.

They found and fixed my problem at day 10. Moved me to another area because the maternity ward wasn't set up to take care of me. Every chance I got I was walking down to the nursery with IV poles and machines in tow.

James also had a staph infection that is normally something from outside the body, but this was inside his spine.

I did 18 days in the hospital and he did 20. Afterward they told me he might be partially or completely deaf from the large amounts of antibiotics. Thankfully he suffered no brain damage and his hearing is normal. He's a big strapping 5'11" 15 year old.

speechless.

Good movei... :thumbsup

:sadcrying
Glad everything worked out though...