Infiltrated IV drip! horrible...just horrible.

My son James had a bad gastroenteritis the other day as you possibly saw in my previous rant/entry on this blog...so we went back to the hospital as he had got worse and started throwing up in the Reception area which I was catching with a bowl, then the waiting area, then triage...until they finally gave him an anti-sick injection...then I was faced with 12 episodes of diarrhea - nearly once every hour...told that it can take up to 7 days for him to  be completely rid of the diarrhea and that he is contagious for about 10 days! I was happy he got seen to finally and that they gave him an anti-sick injection which gave him great relief and then they put him on a IV drip to re-hydrate him which is why we came in the first place...except they didn't get the cannula insertion in correctly and instead of his vein getting the IV fluids - his muscle got 4 bags of IV fluids. It was 5.30 a.m. in the morning when I noticed something was wrong! and called out to the nursing staff who tried to tell the plastic surgeon that it infiltrated at 6 am...no it didn't I said..it was 5.30 a.m. as I text his father who was watching our baby at home. Anyway his hand and arm swelled up to his elbow - about 3 times the size of his hand and arm..I was horrified. I called at them and demanded they tell me what was wrong now? they said his IV drip has been infiltrated. The alarm on the IV drip had not gone off but here is the thing, I don't think they were giving us enough nursing attention to begin with and anyway we got shipped off to a private room then near surgery in the hospital and he saw 3 plastic surgeons! and they were checking his pulse every 24 hrs and we had it elevated in a sling just to get the swelling down. I asked the plastic surgeon if he felt this was done in error. He told me the alarm didn't go off - then the machine was set incorrectly I said...furious for my son. He said he didn't want to comment and left pretty promptly.

ANYWAY thankfully my son is home now - the swelling has THANKFULLY resolved but he came pretty close to needing surgery in his arm...and I am furious they let 4 IV bags of fluid go into his hand and arm...in the first place...when all we came in for was a simple re-hydration of the child in order to make him comfortable. So then the same nurse in question who I had originally complained to, she was a senior nurse manager and I couldn't believe she had effectively made this rookie mistake...anyway she said we will have to put another cannula into his other hand to get the fluids back into him. I agreed but said I was concerned they might make another mistake on him again if that happened in the first place. Oh this is v common for this to happen with young children. James is 3 and a half years old. Anyway, she thankfully put the second cannula in okay and he got the fluids he needed. But I had to take a force majeure from my job in order to stay overnight with him in the hospital and pray that he didn't end up with surgery...then to get my health insurer come around the next day that the room we had been effectively whisked away to - its 1000e a night for a private room in a children's hospital which thankfully he is fully covered for as he is under my plan...and just so you know 817e for a semi-private room. But he is okay - a bit out of sorts and I think he is trying to hide the pain he has been in. He got pain relief for the hand and arm. But yeah poor little boy...at least the sickness has stopped today and he is sleeping better..