Sick infant waits 11 hours for admission to Cork hospital

The parents of a six-week old baby have spoken of their anger at having to wait over eleven hours for their infant daughter to be admitted to hospital, a period during which she vomited repeatedly.

First-time parents, Daniel Long (30) and Debbie Looney (29) have made a formal complaint to Cork University Hospital over their treatment of their baby daughter, Orlaith at the hospital.

Mr Long from Whitegate in East Cork told The Irish Times the couple had become concerned about Orlaith when she began vomiting-up her bottle on the evening of Sunday November 22nd.

They took her to Southdoc in Midleton where the GP on duty was concerned that she might be getting dehydrated and referred them to the Emergency Dept of CUH.

Mr Long, who highlighted their experience on the Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s Red FM, said when they arrived at the Emergency Dept at CUH, they were told they would be seen quickly.

“We presented ourselves at the reception at A&E and the chap behind the desk told us because the baby was so young, we’d be seen within two minutes,” said Mr Long.

“About 20 minutes later we were still waiting, and there were about two or three couples who came in and another girl with another child who was probably four or five... they were all seen before us.”

“Around midnight, a nurse took Orlaith’s temperature and blood pressure but despite the infant continuing to vomit, they had to wait until around 4am before more tests were done.

“A nurse fitted Orlaith with a urine bag around 4am but it wasn’t until around 8am they learned the sample suggested she had a possible kidney infection while a stool sample showed a viral infection.

“Around 9am, a nurse told us that we were going to be admitted and it was 10.30am on the Monday morning before Orlaith was finally admitted to a children’s ward,” said Mr Long.

“Over the course of those eleven hours, Orlaith must have vomited ten times in the waiting area of the children’s section of A&E - different amounts each time but she was keeping nothing down.

“They just kept telling us to try feeding her but we were getting very concerned that she would become dehydrated because she was keeping nothing down since her feed at 2pm on Sunday.

“We told them that we were concerned about her being dehydrated – the GP at Southdoc sent us to CUH because of concerns about dehydration but it was eleven hours before they admitted her.

“We were told that there is a protocol to admit all newborns immediately or certainly within a short time of presenting at a hospital if nothing is evident but we spent the night in the A & E.”

Orlaith was fitted with a tube through her nose and into her stomach to feed her after she was diagnosed with a viral infection and reflux and she spent another day and a half in hospital, Mr Long said.

But Mr Long was also critical of the manner of his daughter’s discharge with a registrar informing them at 4pm on Tuesday that she would staying into another night before being discharged.

“Around 9.15pm, another doctor told us that they would be keeping her in until Wednesday but five minutes later, a nurse told us that she was being discharged and she was discharged at 9.50pm.

“She was discharged into a cold and wet night and when I complained afterwards a staff member at CUH said no one should be discharged at that hour, let alone a six-week-old baby,” he said.

Mr Long said he also learned when they were admitted to the ward on the Monday morning that a nurse in the Emergency Dept had filled in an incident report about their experience there.

“When we went up to the ward, they had already heard about us - the couple who had spent the night in A&E with a six week old baby because a nurse there had filled in an incident report form.

“We had to wait 11 hours to be told that our daughter wasn’t feeding or getting any fluids – that’s what we’d told them when we first got there late on the Sunday night,” he said.

“I would worry this would happen again – this experience would make me (reluctant] to go to A&E knowing my baby is going to be there for 10 or 11 hours again before they do anything about it.”

Orlaith has now made a good recovery but the family’s experience was due to be raised by Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams TD during Leaders Question Times in the Dail on Wednesday.

Contacted about the case, the HSE said that it was looking into the matter and would be issuing a statement in relation to the case on Wednesday once it had been fully briefed by CUH management.