Three Hours in Emergency: Our Emergency Room Experience

Whenever my son comes down with a fever, I watch him like a hawk. I’ll be constantly taking his temperature, looking for more signs of illness, and wondering whether I’m over or underreacting.

It started when he was sent home from daycare with a high temperature. I picked him up, gave him some paracetamol, and put him down for a nap. As the afternoon wore on, his temperature remained elevated but stable, so I didn’t worry too much.

As we were beginning his bedtime routine at 5:15 p.m., I did another temperature check. It was 38.3 °C. I decided to bring out the big guns for bed, ibuprofen. I monitored his temperature very closely:

5:30 p.m.: 38.7°C

5:35 p.m.: 39.1°C

5:45 p.m.: 39.5°C

I became alarmed by the rising temperature. I was frantically Googling: at what point do you take a 16-month-old with a high fever to the hospital. I got various answers from different websites that all had multiple temperature ranges and accompanying symptoms.

Then I remembered we have a service called Healthdirect, where you can call the number and speak to a registered nurse for advice. I got on the phone straight away. While I was on hold, an automated message mentioned I could also visit their website and use the symptom checker. I stayed on hold, but proceeded to enter my son’s details into the symptom checker.

Finally, I got through to a nurse. I told her our situation and she informed me that she needed to get some details. She spoke to me in her robotic tone as she read off the same questions I had just been answering on the online symptom checker.

I thought I would have a casual one-on-one chat with a nurse who would discuss the situation with me, give me some advice and put my mind at ease. Instead, I felt like I was on the phone to a telemarketer reading from a script. She had a list she needed to get through and listening to me was not a priority.

Her questions seemed simple, but felt more complicated in my worried state:

How long has he been coughing for? — I don’t know, he’s been sick since he started daycare two months ago and I can’t tell the difference between one illness and another anymore. He always has a runny nose and a cough.

Does he have any pain in his mouth? — Well, he’s eating okay so I guess not.

Is he dribbling a lot? — He’s a baby, he’s always dribbling.

She kept asking me questions I’d already given her the answers to. She tried to relay information I’d told her and she was getting it all wrong. She eventually got to the end of the exact same symptom checker I was filling out online and told me we needed to take him to a doctor. She gave me a list of doctors’ clinics that were all about to close for the night and a quick ring around confirmed no one could fit us in at short notice.

It looked like it was time to go to the Emergency Department.

We arrived just after 6 p.m. and as soon as we walked in, we were faced with a machine and had to take a number and sit down. I guess this is the best system for a busy hospital, but I always thought they’d triage people immediately on arrival. I’m assuming if we thought things were more serious we could have asked someone for help, rather than wait for our number to be called. We sat down and began the waiting game.

We were surrounded by people looking like they were having the worst day of their lives. People were throwing up into sick bags and sleeping across multiple chairs so we couldn’t sit down. One lady was lying on the floor while her partner massaged her, she kept moving around and couldn’t seem to get comfortable.

Others were having unnecessarily loud phone conversations with worried loved ones. “I felt faint and I fell over. I said, I fell over!” screams one lady into her phone.

As I looked around, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were doing more harm than good by bringing our son to a place with so many sick people.

Finally, our number was called and we were triaged by a nurse. The nurse was very nice and gave our son a big smile. He said he could already tell he was burning up by his flushed cheeks. He took his vitals and looked a little shocked when he saw his temperature. He seemed even more shocked when I told him he was given paracetamol and ibuprofen shortly before leaving for the hospital.

He told us we could progress to the next area of the Emergency Department, the Medicare line. We entered the Medicare area and waited to be called up again. It was about 20 minutes before we were called to the counter and were asked to fill out some paperwork. They then told us we could move to the Paediatric Emergency area.

As we entered Paediatric Emergency, I was feeling hopeful. There was only one other person waiting… although they’d been waiting there for the full hour that we’d been there. Another nurse came and took some more vitals and by now, his temperature was starting to drop. My husband and I were beginning to wonder if we should just take him home again, but we’d come so far. Besides, if we’d gone home then, I wouldn’t have had the reassurance I needed and I’d probably be worrying all night every time he made a noise.

The first hour went fairly well. We were able to keep him entertained with the snacks I’d bought and the couple of toys in the nappy bag. As we entered the second hour waiting in Paediatric Emergency and third hour at the hospital in total, he was becoming really restless. I offered him anything I could find to entertain him, my water bottle, my wallet, a packet of wipes, but he was becoming frustrated, and wanted to throw everything we offered him onto the germ-ridden floor. He should have been in bed almost three hours ago. He kept randomly screaming, and the people sitting next to us got up and moved to the other side of the room, a whole two metres away.

We were taking turns walking around with him. I walked and walked until my back couldn’t take any more and then I swapped with my husband and he did the rounds. His cheeks were no longer flushed and I took his temperature with the thermometer we’d brought with us, it was back to normal. Once again, we were so tempted to leave, but surely we were next.

I saw a doctor approaching and held my breath in excitement… as they called someone else who arrived after us. They’d obviously triaged our son to the bottom of the barrel. I was starting to pace and get agitated, which was making my son more agitated. I was obviously looking dramatic because a doctor came out and asked if we were okay. My husband explained that our son was getting restless and should have been in bed hours ago, his temperature was back to normal, and we were thinking of taking him home. He immediately took us into the examination area.

He asked us a few questions about his symptoms and performed an examination. He told us his ears and throat were inflamed, but there was no pus and no need for treatment. He also told us his temperature was normal, so he must have been over the worst of it. We were instructed to go home and keep him rested and hydrated.

We drove home starving and exhausted. We stopped at the Maccas drive-through on our way because I’d remembered I’d burnt our dinner in the oven while I was trying to talk to Robot Nurse on the phone.

We got home and immediately tucked our son into bed. We collapsed onto the lounge, ate our cold Maccas, and went to bed.

The whole night felt like a complete waste of time. We were at the Emergency Department for so long that our son managed to recover on his own. I joked to my husband about this being their strategy — they leave people waiting so long they get better by themselves and they don’t need to treat anyone.

In hindsight, although I was following the advice of a so-called medical professional, maybe we didn’t need to go to Emergency.

At the time of making the call, I was extremely worried and there was no way I was going to put my son to bed with a temperature that high, so I still feel we did the right thing. I just wish the hospital system was a little more effective. I was surprised that a 16-month-old with a high temperature was left to wait so long.

I also found great satisfaction in filling out the survey about my experience with Healthdirect and Robot Nurse the following day. I will seriously consider my options before I bother calling Healthdirect again in the future.