BHB Deny Young Patient Was ‘Turned Away’
In response to a recent news report, the Bermuda Hospitals Board issued a statement saying that “claims that a young patient was turned away from the Emergency Department before later being admitted are completely unfounded.”
Last night [June 5] VSB news reported that, “An internal inquiry may have to be held at the KEMH following the death yesterday evening of 12-year-old Rodrica Campbell, whose family have levied a number of charges of poor care by hospital staff.”
VSB said they had been told “the girl had been sent home earlier sent home by the Emergency Department, but had to be brought back and admitted.”
A BHB spokesperson said, “The Bermuda Hospitals Board would like to respond to an incorrect statement reported by the media yesterday. Claims that a young patient was turned away from the Emergency Department before later being admitted are completely unfounded.
“This patient was not seen at the hospital or the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre prior to her admission on 2 June, at which time she was promptly admitted to the ICU and provided with appropriate care.
“BHB would like to assure the public that no one is turned away when seeking medical attention at the Emergency Department or the Urgent Care Centre. All patients are seen, treated and either discharged or admitted,” concluded the BHB spokesperson.
Ha, I had a mate last year who was told he was a hypochondriac and to go home and live his life. Died of cancer with a few months. No accountability and no liability is a bad combination.
Who claimed they were turned away.
How stocked is the Hospital with meds? No one that is admitted should have to go OUTSIDE of the hospital to get meds….No excuse for this…..explain that
Actually, I would love the answer to this question. Being that this seems to be a common practice. Also if you know that you are running low on meds why send the patients family? What if they have no family? How will they get the medication?
If the patient had no family to get a drug from a pharmacy, either a hospital employee would go or a courier would deliver it.
Every hospital in every country has a “formulary” – a list of drugs deemed necessary to be stocked in and provided by the hospital’s Pharmacy department. No hospital in any country has every possible drug in its formulary. Very careful consideration and deliberation goes into deciding which drugs to have and which drugs to exclude from a hospital formulary, and this is done on a continual basis, with drugs regularly being added or removed as indicated by usage, cost, availability, risk/benefit analysis, etc.. Many drugs are incredibly expensive and all drugs have expiry dates. Stocking expensive drugs which are seldom required and throwing them away when they expire would be a poor use of limited healthcare dollars. Stocking multiple drugs that do the same thing with slight variation is also an inefficient formulary practice. Patients in any hospital in any country will therefore occasionally be asked to obtain certain medications from commercial pharmacies.
To answer your point specifically:
- The KEMH is very well stocked with medications.
- It is the case in EVERY hospital that an admitted patient may have to go OUTSIDE of the hospital to get medications.
Thanks, Dr. Elliott, for your explanation.
Sounds like someone is not telling the truth here. It would be good to hear from the family sometime in the future, after they have had sufficient time to deal with the tragic loss of their 12 year old child.
Exactly that happened to my 2- year old son. Sent away after a cursory glance from a doctor in Emergency. A day later, very ill, he was admitted for 5 days to treat pneumonia, missed completely by the first doctor.
Luckily he recovered.
I feel terrible for this poor little girl’s family. I hope they get the answers they are looking for.
So, commenting on an article that says that the BHB specifically refutes the spurious claim that this poor child was turned away from the Emergency Department, you state that “exactly that” happened to your son?
Also, I note: “a day later he was very ill”. I can assume from this that he was not very ill when first taken to the ER? Did you expect a not very ill child to be admitted without indication, or did you expect the doctor to somehow see the future? I’m willing to bet that you were advised that there while did not appear to be anything seriously wrong with your son, but you should bring him back if he gets worse or develops new symptoms. This is a standard and reasonable approach.
I feel awful for the parents, but I have had to spend quite a lot of time at KEMH over the past few years with my child, and the staff and care has always been top of the charts. So I really feel there is more to this story, that has not come out yet.
So quick to always try and blame the hospital. We dont know what happened in this unfortunate situation. Let the coroner do his job and let’s leave the speculation alone.
Itsabutallofus- your sick!!! We don’t know what happened in this unfortunate situation your saying. Do you realize you say WE… and let the coroner do his job. You have made me think I am not to blame the hospital WWWWWEEEE the people should blame ourselves for whatever happens when we seek you skilled proffs especially as a last resort!!!
My condolences to the family.
I am sitting here wondering if the family health insurance may have been a factor here (if they story is true)
I can’t say for sure what happened here but it’s well known that the hospital ER has, in the past, discharged people only for them to turn out to be seriously ill, with some dying. Again not speaking of this case, but people need to stand up and not be intimidated just because the person talking to you has a medical degree. Trust your gut. I had an instance when my son was young and ill (he actually passed out from a high fever) and they kept telling me in the ER it was only ‘a virus’ and the doctor kept saying ‘I think it’s this’ and ‘I think it could be that’, saying my son could go home and to give him some Liquiprin.
Finally, I slammed my hand down on the table next to my son’s bed and said to the doctor ‘I don’t want to hear any ‘I thinks’ from you, I want to hear ‘I know’. So until you actually run some tests and tell me what you KNOW and not what you THINK, I’m not going anywhere.’ He went off not looking too happy, and he and some nurses were at the nurses’station clearly grumbling about me and probably thinking I was a huge b*tch but I didn’t care-this was my child’s life. As it turned out, my son had a very bad chest infection (that could have progressed to pneumonia) and needed antibiotics and not just acetaminophen.
I encourage anyone in a situation where your loved one is really unwell to refuse to leave that hospital until you see an improvement and not let doctors bully or intimidate you just because they’re too busy to deal with you-that’s their job! TRUST YOUR GUT!
Good for you for standing up! And finally someone else caught on to the fact that saying “I think” is the same as “I do not know”. All day I hear people talk, with attitude, about what they “don’t know”.
Always the case… This is one of the worst hospitals in the world
I have to wonder at times if people use the hospital as a doctors office, children need a pediatrician to have a total evaluation on a child. The doctors at the hospital are fabulous, but they are not Gods, they need information, children do not get pneumonia overnight, been there!
No they are not Gods…That’s why they have tests, x-rays etc to help them find out what is going on. A cursory glance at a patient WILL NOT TELL YOU WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG!
My condolences to the family. I too have had a series of concerns about the ER in KEMH. In the past month I too have taken my child to hospital due to fever. My concern is the wait time they give patients just to get in the ER. 3 weeks ago I rushed my son to emergency at 10:00pm. I didn’t get to see anyone until almostb1:30am. I felt his temperature rising and he began to shiver. I walk out to the nurses desk and asked for the doctor They told me he was busy and that they would send in a nurse to check his temperature. When they checked his temperature it was a whopping 104. And still no doctor. Finally he came and gave him 3 seringes of Advil and a chest x ray told me I had to stay and wait for his fever to subside. Didn’t get home until 4:00am. What a day to remember.
All this being said, I feel that children should be made priority at the hospital no matter what. There should also be full time staff there just to cater to infants and children and MORE CHILD FRIENDLY ROOMS. Not just one room in the entire emergency for child care.
Firstly my condolences to the family. I pray that you wll get answers once an autopsy has been performed. I am disappointed that this young lady’s unfortunate death is in the media. Surely someone has gone out of their way to to make it everyone’s business. As always most of the comments are not positive. Is there no consideration for the family reading these damming comments. No respect for the family. Always think about how you would feel if you had a similar experience. It hurts.
You wonder why young folk take the law in their own hands. A 13 year old dies and no one knows anything. Who is the ER attendant that saw her. That individual needs to answer. Imagine what the child went through. If the child was checked thoroughly blood work, and the works, a practicing physician would have determined an ailment or at least sickness warranting admittance. I say folks learn to look after yourselves, and your families and stop being confident in other people schooled with authority to tell you go home. Stay there!!!! Tell them ” Your being paid to help me”They need to go home!! GOMERS HUH
Instead of making so many judgements, why not wait to hear the truth, it is usually different than what you think.
What ever! They will tie the case up in legal BS for so long that we may NEVER hear the truth!
And that Ann is the most definate TRUTH!
I don’t think we’ll get the truth in this tragic case, at least not for a while. The inquiry may well be followed by court action.
First may I extend my condolences to the family at such a tragic time.
Now – Anybody who has gone to the hospital will have a few horror stories to tell about the way they “tend” to their patients. I have had far to many occur with my children, grandmother, and others.
No, most of the time the doctor’s do not care about the patient, and I have even had one blatently tell me that “you Bermudians want tests and x-rays for every little thing then you wonder why its such a high cancer rate in your contry” BS even due to the fact that my child had been brought in after being in a serious bike accident. After ARGUING with this fool he finally conceeded with the “its your health” comment and had the x-rays done. Come to find out there were several splinter fractures in their leg/foot that he would have just let go.
I say to the Campbell family, do not let this rest! A precedent must be set that we will not tolerate this happening to us!
Good luck and may God bring comfort your way!
Looking at all the comments some people say they get top notch treatment from KEMH n
Most say that they don’t. Personally I think KEMH is a fukup and don’t care 2 much 4
Patients. Here I will tell u of my experience.
I had my baby by C-section september 13 last year I was released from the hospital
Sept 16 with my staples being removed b4 I was released. The day after I went home wif my baby sept 17 my stitch busted blood everywhere I mean everywhere my 2 friends
Rushed me 2 KEMH called b4 we got there and they said 2 apply pressure until I reached
Wen I reached KEMH the admittance clerk let’s me go right through wen I get through
The whole emergency team was standing behind the desk talking my friend n I are tellin them what has happened and the whole team is standing around looking at mi as if my whole waist down was not covered in blood as if I didn’t just walk in dripping blood from the entrance door right through, 2 where as they didn’t even know wat room
To put mi in. After them staring at me for about 3min str8 they tell me go in room #2
With no one coming 2 assist me do u really wanna know who gave my friend gause and
Things to help mi the cleaning guy went n got me stuff, do u wanna know who cleaned m
Up my friend that took me to KEMH. Oh and I have major medical insurance 4 those of u
Who think insurance is what matters.
KEMH is sh$t and is not top Notch so for the little bit of people who do think it is
Just consider ya self one of the lucky ones that get correct and decent treatment
Because not everybody gets top notch treatment.
And for the person who made a comment about this childs family having the right insurance u might as well have said nothing at all cuz insurance should not determine determine weather a person should live or not.
Its not only the emergency department its all over the hospital. Wen I went in labor on sept 12 I was having contractions I went str8 2 maternity and wen I got there the lady hooked me up to the machine leavin the machine to pick up my contractions after leavin me 4 about 45min she says I am not having contractions and that it is not picking up on the machine. What was wrong wif the machine I don’t know but what I did know is that I was havin contractions and the nurse couldn’t tell me no different. She then began to tell me she was sending me home n that’s when I got very angry n told her I am not goin nowhere I know what contractions feel like n I am having them so she says this is not you first baby n I told her no that’s wen she decide 2 keep me. A hour later I was being rushed to the operating room.
My advice is for people to go with ya first mind if u don’t feel comfortable leaving the hospital don’t leave.
To all of you that have complants, please issue them in writting with the names of the persons name who treated you with disrespect or not right to the BHB so that those persons can be dealt with accordingly. I can say that many hospitals have their horror stories and that King Edward strives to give the upmost care to its patients. For those of you that go to the hospital for the flu that just started wait a day/2 and go to your family physician, your just asking to be sent home as there are mant OTC meds that help you break a temperture without waisting the precious time of healthcare workers.
My feelings exactly, Stop using the hospital as your own personal doctors office, so they have time to deal with the people that really need them, not including the gun shot victims, whom I wonder every day who pays for. They have a wonderful dept. If you have a complaint, that really does try to help you!
I’m always late finding things out but all I can say is that I hope God soon eases the family and friends pain. She is with the Lord now, her pain is gone.