I work in a pediatric ER and I am so sick of all the crazy parents out there. Just the other day I had this little 26 day old come in with a known seizure disorder on phenobarb. Baby was d/c'd from NICU the day before and had a seizure at home... so what do the parents do? Rush the kid to the ER for a "STAT phenobarb level and want to immediatly 'give her a po bolus' of phenobarb." UGH, had to explain to them that giving her a "po bolus" will make her stop breathing! So, we draw the phenobarb level, they won't let us draw anything else because they state the baby is anemic and that drawing another 10th of a teaspoon of blood will push her over the edge (even though we can't draw a CBC to see if she really IS anemic).
So we draw the Level and are waiting for results now, every 5 minutes they come out and ask if the results are back, meanwhile they have "bolused" the kid without our concent--although not as much as they would have if we hand't said something, because they know better since the dad's a pharmacist and the mom is supposedly medically inclined somehow. So we're waiting for the level and the kid has a seizure in the ER, great, just what we need. Baby's pink so we're setting up a little O2 and suction and the sat probe falls off the kids toe, mom freaks, throws her portable O2 tank on the bed dad starts yelling "she's getting dusky" And meanwhile we put the probe back on, the kid's fine. I keep saying, she's fine, she's pink... mom's yelling "I'm losing my child!" UGH, drama.
So then MD orders ativan, which I was soo happy about so that we can prevent this kid from having another seizure and having the parents freak again (asked them if they'd witnessed seizures before, they said yes "at least 6"... but only in the NICU). I go in to push the ativan and they ask, once again, if the level's back, I state that I will check the minute I'm done pushing the med. But no, they won't let me touch the baby until I check. I had had enough at this point, I kinda blow out of the room, I know I shouldn't have, sit down at the computer and nope, not back yet. Mom starts crying at this point, telling me to not be upset. I apologize, push the ativan and leave.
Another nurse does most of the care after this point, thank goodness, because I wasn't sure if I couldn't take much more of these poeple. I try to educate that the kid will have seizures, she has a seizure disorder, but parents are too freaked to listen.
(There were at least 4 other very demanding families there that night, the MD almost lost it too.)
MAN, this was probably the most unwilling, demanding, dramatic family I've ever dealt with. I barely kept it together. I'm kinda ashamed with myself for losing it like I did. But, even the Doctor went into the room and told the parents we were trying to care for their child, but they were making it difficult. How do you get over these families? I just keep my finger's crossed and hope that these people don't come back when I'm on (isn't that horrible). Anyhow, just needed to vent. thanks.
