Trust your instincts

In November of 2009, my son was diagnosed with pneumonia. He was treated with an antibiotic for 10 days. I called the doctor on the 10th day due to him being up all night and having trouble breathing and he was grunting as he breathed. I called and they originally told me to try to make it thru the weekend, because he was still on the antibiotic and he just needed more time. But 30 min. after talking to the doctor on the phone, my son was getting worst. So I called the doctor back and told them I was bringing him in. When I got there, my son was screaming really bad and I could not get him to calm down .
 Remind you that I was 8 months pregnant. I was at the doctor's for an hour and a half. The doctor listened to him and told me he was fine, but i did not like how he was grunting. She gave him a new antibiotic and sent us home. As I left the office and headed across the street to get his medicine, I called my mother and his father and told them what the doctor had said. I told both of them that i did not feel comfortable. That is when his doctor called and told me that one of her nurses told her she heard my son grunting and the nurse thought some thing was wrong. She told me if i still did not feel comfortable, I should go to the emergency room. Well by this time my son had fell asleep and was turning blue around his lips. I took him to Calvert Memorial Hospital and I signed him in. By the time i got a drink out of the vending machine (because it has now been 2 and and half hours without any fluids), they were calling me back. My mom was getting my older son of the bus and heading up to help me until my husband got to the hospital. They took him back to get vitals and find out what was going on.a As soon as the nurses saw him, they rushed him back to a room. With in minutes, they were getting a chest x-ray and had him on oxygen. He only had about 50 % usage of his lungs. They did an x-ray before anyone else got there, so i had to wait outside while the nurses held him. My mom got there shortly after that and help by taking over, so i could get a break from holding him . By this time they were treating him non-stop with a nebulizer. My husband got to the hospital and they informed us they were going to transport him because they did not have a nic-unit. Five minutes later they came in and told us they were air lifting him to Georgetown University Hospital. With in 10 minutes, he was being loaded up on the stretcher to be air lifted. Because of him being so young, they had an extra person flying in the helicopter. My husband could not fly with him because of the weight limit, and of course i could not fly. So i had to put my baby on a helicopter by himself. That was the longest 45 minute ride in my life. By the time we got there and got to the floor I could hear him crying. We got to the room and they had him hooked up to all kind of things. They were excellent and treated him around the clock. Over the next couple of hours they slowly moved the treatments farther apart. We had to stay the entire weekend, but the hospital was excellent. My family could come to visit because he was in the intensive care unit. It turns out he still had some pneumonia and on top of it, he had gotten a viral infection. We left the hospital with 2 types of steroids and albuterol. Still to this day he is taking some steroids.



So here is what I suggest you do if you ever think something is wrong with your child.



1. Call your doctor and tell them what is wrong.


2. If it is bad enough demand them see them right away. Any good doctor will.


3. If you don't like what they say , Get another opinion or go to the Emergency room.





My feeling is, hospital bills you can pay back in payments, but your child's life is priceless. I am glad I decided to go to the ER. If would have went home like the doctor wanted me to, who knows if they would have been able to save my son.