NIGHTMARE

Lyla in the ambulance on our way to Children's Medical Center

     We had a crazy 12 hour ER visit at Children's Medical Center.  On Oct 18th Lyla's central line broke and after 4 hours of trying to get a repair kit here at OCH, Lyla was transferred by ambulance to CMC.  I thought it would be a quick in and out thing, seems how she was getting transferred and the procedure should only take about 20 minutes. Boy was I wrong... 

   It started off well, they were quick to see Lyla, they asked the size of her line and I told them 6.7fr. But then they questioned me about it being the right size because the IV team told the ED team that it only comes in a 6.6fr... About 1.5 hours in & It was already taking longer than I imagined, and wished we had transferred to Cook Children's instead. They called Cooks to get her medical records, so they would know the exact size & what do you know, I was right. They called the IV team again and let them know we were ready for the procedure. They came down and we got started, everything sterile, and ready to go, they cut Lyla's line and attempted to attach the new line. I didnt work because it was the wrong size & brand. So there we were, sitting with a cut line with hemoclaps attached and no new line to repair it with. 

    By now I was asking to transfer to Cook Children's because I knew they had what we needed and it would get fixed fast. However, the doctor there at the CMC told me they could get the right line in a short amount of time, but no one could tell me how long that would be. The doctor tried to convince me that it would be faster to get the line there and fixed, then the transferring process to cooks. I told them several times i wanted to transfer, but no one listened, it was very frustrating. With Lyla being admitted at OCH and already transferred once, it wasn't as easy as if I had just taken here into CMC myself. I couldn't just leave, because Lyla was admitted at OCH. Trust me, we wanted to just leave, go to Cooks, get the line fixed, then go back to OCH. After waiting about 30mins after I had talked to the doctor I asked the nurse if they had gotten anything. I was told IV team had found one and were on their way.  Turns out they did find the right brand, but not the right size, so it was useless to us.  By this time the whole IV team & ED supervisor were searching for a line. Calling their suppliers & even the hospital across the street. I continued telling them I want to transfer, and even had Trevor go to OCH to try to convince the doctor at Our Children's House to get us transferred to Cooks. It didnt work though, instead the doctors at OCH & CMC communicated about what to do. In the mean time, about 7 hours into our stay, the ED supervisor contacted Cooks and set up a pickup... not a pickup for Lyla... I wsih, but a for someone to go Cooks, pick up the right line and bring it back. I took 2 hours for them to drive there and back. In those 2 hours the nurse blew 2 veins before she placed a PIV so Lyla could get some much needed fluids. 

     Then FINALLY the line arrived after being there for 9 hours!!! and it took no time for the IV team to fix it. We were ready to go "home" to OCH, so I thought... For some reason no one there knew how we were getting back to OCH, It was obvious to me that a ambulance had to take us back, because Lyla was inpatient and going back with a PIV & fluids running, but once again no one listened to me. They seriously mentioned a taxi, and how it would be fine that Lyla didn't have a carseat, because its legal for a baby to ride without a carseat in a taxi. They were clueless!!! Once again I called our doctor at OCH and had her tell the ED that we needed a supervised transport by ambulance. We signed discharge papers, & I thought that everything was taking care of and that we were just waiting on the ambulance to pick us up. BUT NOOO, our clueless nurse didnt realize she was the one that had to call and set up the transfer. after a 45 minutes of waiting, I yelled to the nurses station... DID ANYONE CALL THE TRANSFER TEAM??? OMG her face said it all, but she lied to my face and said she did as she scurried of to the phone. I think she was scared to say anything to me after that, she had a male tech come give us updates after that. & it wasnt until we were strapping Lyla to the stretcher, that I realize the nurse screwed up once again, she had set Lyla's fluids to run at 5ml/hr instead of 50ml/hr.  She's lucky she wasn't around, I was so mad.  This caused Lyla to be dehydrated and had to be hooked up to fluids for almost 24 hours at a increased rate or 65ml/hr.

  We got back to Our Children's House at 4am, 12 hours after we left. What a NIGHTMARE it was!!!