Emergency Visit at SJRH

On March 26th, our 14-month-old daughter woke up a little out of sorts. She’d been suffering from cold symptoms for a few days and had woken up in the night, so we assumed she was overtired. It wasn’t long before she began to shake uncontrollably. We took her temperature and it was a little high, so we called 811. While on the phone, her hands, feet and around her mouth began to turn purple. The very helpful nurse on the line advised us to take her to the hospital. We arrived at the SJRH Emergency department around 8:00am and were triaged within 20 minutes of our arrival. Our daughter’s fever had risen to 40.5 degrees Celsius. We got a bed in Emerg right away, and were seen immediately. Within two hours, our daughter had a chest X-Ray, a nasal swab and a urinalysis, as well as constant vital sign monitoring. Dr. Page was in several times to check on us as we awaited results, even when Tylenol and Advil had brought our daughter’s fever down. The nurses were kind and compassionate, offering support emotionally and tangibly. After three hours, her fever had stabilized and initial results indicated the infection wasn’t serious. We were happily discharged with a dosing chart and a promise to follow up when her nasal swab results came in. The next day, Dr. Page called us with the results and suggested treatment. We were encouraged to return if her condition worsened. To us, the compassion, care and professionalism meant the world. We know that hospital staff are overwhelmed with the number of patients on their caseload. We were made to feel important and validated in our concern for our daughter, even when it turned out she had a fairly run-of-the-mill childhood illness. We are so thankful for the staff at the SJRH Emergency department for treating us with such compassion during a stressful time for first-time parents.