So, twin 1 goes to the doctors with a bad cough, temperature and complete loss of appetite. GP says viral, no need for anti-biotics. Fine we think.

A day later she is taken back after a day puking and severe discomfort. She is referred to the hospital where she is diagnosed with a severe bacterial chest infection (possibly pneumonia) and is immediately put on intravenous anti-biotics. She’s in there right now and just starting to show signs of getting better.

Today twin 2 started showing identical symptoms but the doctor said it’s just viral and refused to prescribe anti-biotics even though we went through the identical steps with twin 1 just days ago. It took my wife 15 minutes of arguing before he relented, listened and gave us the prescription.

Just come from upstairs for the second time this evening where I found her shaking – again an identical symptom to her sister.

Decking useless – can’t they accept sometimes they might have been wrong and trust parents’ instincts?

🙁

I think places where doctors don’t have a pronoun create an atmosphere in which they believe they are infallible.

e.g. ‘Doctor will see you know’

Doctor? Do you mean ‘The doctor’, or ‘your doctor’? Only god has no pronoun to his title.

Your medical training is…………?

If GPs followed “parents instincts” every sniffle would get antibiotics which would result in antibiotic resistance.

Medicine is not an exact science but its a damn sight better than “Parents instincts”

It’s not nice having kids in hospital. Get well soon vibes from Scotland.

He must have been a particularly stubborn twunt not to consider antibiotics for No. 2 if he knew how it had panned out for No. 1.

Like any profession, you get good, bad and indifferent ones though.

#
TandemJeremy – Member

Your medical training is…………?

If GPs followed “parents instincts” every sniffle would get antibiotics which would result in antibiotic resistance.

Medicine is not an exact science but its a damn sight better than “Parents instincts”
Posted 7 seconds ago # Report-Post

That’s irrelevant and you know it is. Child 1 from the same house with the same symptoms ending up on IV antibiotics. Dr Quack should have investigated further without the need to be persuaded.

GP’s are going to be in charge of more and more fund holding – way too much power. Most GP’s are money motivated sadly.

An Internet diagnosis is often more accurat than a gp in my experience

Yeah, whatever TJ, I knew I could rely on you to respond so.

Geoff – for the second one perhaps.

All the best to you and yours MF – hope they get well soon

Geoff – for the second one perhaps.

and where did MF insist on an alternative diagnosis for the first GP visit? Read the post before trying to wind someone up who is obviously upset about his children being ill. Its not nice!

Geoff – for the second one perhaps.

I read it as him moaning about not taking it into account on the second visit, not complaining about the first. Maybe it’s just how it came across.

TJ – I assume by your last comment that you accept that ‘the second one’ should have had her symptoms investigated further?

That was all I was ranting about. We were initially happy with the docs diagnosis on twin 1.

Could you not have requested a second opinion from another GP? Or, having been unhappy with the way the GP handled the first case, maybe you could have asked to see a different GP? I’m assuming it was the same GP of course.

Hope they’re both ok by the way.

Ok If I have the wrong end of the stick I apologise. Sorry

Same GP yes, it was all very rushed (she went downhill this afternoon so we took her immediately to the docs early evening but still had to get back to the hospital etc). Really no time for second opinions, instead my wife just stood her corner.

NP TJ, appology accepted. 🙂

Oh no. Do hope they both get well soon m_f.

I really wish GPs would credit folk with some intelligence.

Fair enough Mike.

I would have been talking to the hospital that has your first daughter in it and seeing what they said personally…

SBZ – given more time we might have done, but it has just been a manic 24 hours.

Been horrible listening to our little dot coughing so hard it has been making her throw up even the smallest amounts of liquid she’s taken in the last 72 hours or so.

The reason I suggested that is because we had a similar situation a few months back and rather than go via the gp for the 2nd one we just got the doc in the hospital to check them out. They seemed happy to do so.

I assume my wife was just trying to do it by the book? Can’t ask her right now as she is in the hospital of course. Ahh well, fingers crossed they will be okay in a few days.

Hope your twins get well soon MF.

FWIW although I’m not a GP, IME parents instincts are very often correct, after all no-one knows their children better!

Kids in hospital never good 🙁 hope all goes well, as you have time and inclination to rant on here about it ill presume it has! 🙂

Happens quite often GPs think parents over react, however parents know their own child and if something is out of the ordinary, parents should always stick to their guns with regards to the childs health.

TandemJeremy – Member
Your medical training is…………?

If GPs followed “parents instincts” every sniffle would get antibiotics which would result in antibiotic resistance.

Medicine is not an exact science but its a damn sight better than “Parents instincts”

ahh right, how many kids do you have………..?

@MF – feel for you, been there but fortunately most GPs have gone with the “better safe than sorry’ approach with our little ones. For adults though – many of them treat us like idiots. My dentist of all people spotted something in an x-ray and I went for a chat about it with the GP. Was told straight away “not to worry about it”. I asked him if he could explain why he felt that way and he stumbled around before admitting he had no idea what it was!

That led to GP no 2 – first thing she did was apologise as she only vaguely remembered about it from med school and wanted to look it up online before offering an opinion – in my mind that is a perfect response – she is now my GP.

TJ – you’ve apologised so fair enough but your first post was so typical of the arrogant, dismissive and condescending attitude that can get the medical profession a bad name. Some parents are of course idiots but many do whatever they can for their kids before ‘making a fuss’. Even if you got the wrong end of the stick, you’re a plonker for replying to MF’s post in that tone. That said, I wouldn’t want your job and I’m grateful that people like you do what you do…

I, unfortunatly, have a vast experience of all sorts of dr’s…

A good GP is almost impossible to find, but when you do, getting an appointment is almost impossible….(i found one!)

I would honestly say go to a different GP for something very minor soon and see if you feel more confident, if not keep trying… It seems getting a good GP is as difficult as getting a NHS dentist these days 😥

i hope your kids are ok

TandemJeremy – Member
Your medical training is…………?

If GPs followed “parents instincts” every sniffle would get antibiotics which would result in antibiotic resistance.

Medicine is not an exact science but its a damn sight better than “Parents instincts”

My Mother’s instinct that my 3 year old sister was ill but the GP said she was over worrying and told her to go home.

A few days later my sister was air ambulanced to London after my Mother didn’t believe him and went into casualty where she was diagnosed with infection to liver and kidney.

After 3 weeks on life support they asked my Mother why didn’t she bring her in earlier as she would have been ok which she replied the GP told her 4 times to go home on different days as he thought my Mother was over worrying.

2 weeks later they turned life support off and declared her dead.

My Mother had a nervous breakdown and has never been the same again with OCD for the rest of her life and bubble wrapping her family afterwards.

GP covered it up too after she complained. He was strickened of by the Medical council for another mistake and many complaints from other families. GPs can make mistakes.

20 years later I grew up and went to med school so people wouldn’t have to deal with lazy terrible doctors.

My current GP is excellent while my last was terrible.

So TJ while I think you have logical debate, in this instance you can can ki55 my a55.

hope the twins get better soon, must be hard without the illness. in the last year we have had to stay in hospital 3 times, all within 24hrs hours of being seen by a doctor. things can change quickly with babies because of their size but the boy was properly ill in all 3 cases.

Arrogant, highly if not overpaid, insensitve, overworked(not gp), condescending statisticians.

The average intelligent human is better looking on the web for information most of the time. its what the gps i know do anyway they just feel slightly more subjective.

Nice to see a typical bell end stw reply when the op is going through on of the most worrying times of their life.

Nice to see a typical bell end stw reply when the op is going through on of the most worrying times of their life

My point is that parents should trust their instincts as GP’s can be wrong and the OP’s children will be fine but if the GP listened to the OP in the first place then the children wouldn’t had to go to hospital in the first place!

As a GP I can tellyou it’s a bloody hard job to do well! The most important thing to do is tolisten to the parent patient and do a thorough examination and document everything! – V hard to do when you have 5-10 mins per patient and ever increasing expectations.

The signs that a kid is really poorly rather than just “viral” are when they have a really high temp/heart rate/resp rate and increased cap refill time/rash. I do this and document it on nearly every kid I see. The sad thing is that you could get through GP training with spending no time in paediatrics- shocking when lots of your caseload is unwell kids! Kids though do go off very quickly and a child that is ok in the morning can deteriorate markedly by the evening. However had I been the GP in this case I would have been eating humble pie with kid no 2. I think most reasonable patients accept that we are human, but understandibly hate arrogant and cocksure members of the profession!

Anyway MF – hope your kids get better!!

the best bit of training i did for treating kids and parents was to become a father myself. it’s not until you have your own you truly understand the bond.

However i could argue that a midwife’s error killed my sister in law and a bad decision by a psychiatrist led to my brother’s suicide. can’t prove it though

DrNik – twin 1 had increased heart rate and shallow breathing, siphons as you describe!

Anyway, she is back home now and sleeping. Her sister is beside herself and not feeding nor sleeping so difinately has the same (I am having 5 minutes before going up to bed).

Before we left the hospital we talked to the consultant and they couldn’t believe the GP attitude even though they knew the case history.

The sad thing is that you could get through GP training with spending no time in paediatrics

That really is shocking – even I had to do a stint in paeds, albeit a short one, as part of my Paramedic training!

Get well soon mini M_Fs!

Nasty stuff mate!

Sounds like the mini MFs are getting better though thanks to your tenacity 🙂

Thankfully the Ho hum family’s GP has been spot on with everything (in their defence).

woody i should clarify that. you’d have to spend time in paeds as an undergraduate but you could miss it completely as a post grad in a GP training scheme. That was the case in my day anyhow -things may have changed.

My paeds and a+e experience as well as doing a PHPLS course have proved invaluable!

Frankenstein, nothing wrong with your reply, it was the much maligned TJ one. sounds like you have done all you can to improve what is essentially a flawed system.

My personal opinion is the medical profession wrong for the modern world. So much research has been done rhat I believe the GP is now flawed as they cant remember everything and now act as a referral service. Even the nhs knows this and has set up nhsdirect.

i know a few gps and they are all doing very nicely, work some preferred hours and have a ‘head in the sand, i help people’ attitude.

Some nurses operating terminals down at the surgery with a couple of gps the to oversee some of the more crtical patients with services from 5am to 10pm would serve most people far better.