Father’s traumatic quest to get his sick son treated at Perth hospitals

A father has described a traumatic experience for him and his wife trying to get treatment for his 20 month old son at Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) and Fiona Stanley Hospital.
Omer and his wife, who is a nurse and also 38 weeks pregnant, took their 20 month old son to PCH because their son had a fever.
Omer says he was told it could be an ear infection and his son was discharged without any tests being done and with an antibiotic prescription.
However, his fever persisted and they again presented him to PCH, and were left the diagnosis of a UTI and a different antibiotic was prescribed.
“He stopped breathing in my arms, and he basically had a convulsion … rushed on priority to Fiona Stanley,” Omer said on 6PR Breakfast.
“When they got there they made my pregnant wife and my son who was still shaking … sit in the waiting area, not in emergency, the nurse said that he’s not a priority anymore because he’s breathing, and to sit and wait with everyone else and see the registered clerk.
“Fiona Stanley couldn’t get rid of us quick enough, we have waited two hours to see a doctor, an hour-and-a-half to get some Panadol into him, and they just pumped Nurofen into him twice on an empty stomach, and we were released, and they said that’s it’s just a UTI and go home and he’ll be fine.”
The next day Omer’s son starting vomiting up blood.
“We called the ambulance … three units arrived within eight minutes,” Omer said.
“They wanted to take him to Fiona Stanley, I insisted we went to PCH, which they did, and once we got there we got the care we needed in emergency.
“They did some tests and they found that because his infection had been mistreated, and hadn’t been treated properly, it spread to his kidneys and it’s gone all the way up, and it’s actually hurting him every time he goes to the toilet, and it could cause some serious damage to him because he’s got internal blood loss as well.”
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