I received a call from Texas Children's on Tuesday. The person started by asking me how Ben was doing. I thought, how sweet. They are giving us a call to follow-up and make sure Ben is doing well. Then, she revealed her true reason for calling.
While we were in the hospital and Ben wasn't eating well, I was pumping to make sure that I maintained my milk supply. Apparently, when we were discharged they failed to give us all of my expressed milk. Then, they fed it to another baby. It may not seem like a huge deal (other than the gross factor), but it could be potentially deadly for the infant if I had certain medical issues. While I know that I am clean and do not have hepatitis, HIV, etc, I can only image how freaked out the other mother. She is sitting there wondering if her child was exposed to something that can kill him/her because someone at the hospital wasn't careful and didn't check a label.
This whole incident has reaffirmed my concern with the new Texas Children's Hospital location. Poor Ben has been there twice (once for jaundice) and we had major anxiety during the first visit not feeling that everyone was trained and as well prepared as they should have been.
This visit was a little better, as far as we know. Of course there were random things that annoyed us like the lady wanting to turn all the lights on in the middle of the night to check Ben's blood pressure or the fact they made us move rooms at 2am so they could work on the A/C. Really? You can't schedule that when the room isn't in use. There are plenty of open rooms. Now that we know about the milk mix, up, it leaves me hoping that they gave Ben the correct medicine in his IV each time and didn't do anything else that could jeopardize his health. It's bad enough worrying about your baby when he's in the hospital, but adding the worry of whether or not the people taking care of your baby are competent is even worse.
Oh yes, I also had to spend 2 hours of my day (and gas money) driving back to Texas Children's, registering, and having blood work done. Of course, I would want another mother to do it for me so I wouldn't worry, but it was extremely inconvenient to do that with a 2 mo old who just got out of the hospital.
3 comments:
Scary as this is, it's positive that they don't just hide their mistakes and do follow up with their checking after finding out something's not gone right. In the UK we often hear of "cover ups" so the fact they've been open about it is better. So pleased that Ben and Jackson are back together again and hope all goes well for them both from now on. Love and hugs.
Whatever you do don't read about how many people have died at Christus and then had it "covered up.
I am really sorry you had to go through that. You are right. Who needs it with two babies, one who has been sick.
I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.
Not cool.
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