Sit down and wait your turn
Mother who rushed her 7-week-old to England’s best A&E when he stopped breathing was told...
‘I couldn’t believe it’
A YOUNG mother who rushed her seven-week-old baby into the country’s ‘ best’ A& E department when he stopped breathing was told by staff to ‘sit down and wait your turn’.
Daveanah Cowie was stunned when her pleas for help at Derby Royal Hospital were ignored as she cradled her lifeless little boy.
But she ignored the order to wait in line and ran to find a doctor who resuscitated little TommyLee and put him on a life support machine.
Miss Cowie, 21, said her baby could have died if she hadn’t acted quickly.
Tommy-Lee was found to have bronchitis and has been in hospital for more than a week along with his twin brother ArlowJack, who has the same condition. Derby hospital has admitted the receptionist ‘failed to recognise the serious nature of this situation’.
Earlier this year its A& E team – which sees about 400 patients a day – was named the best in the country by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
But Miss Cowie slammed its staff as ‘ irresponsible’ and demanded action be taken to prevent a repeat of her nightmare. The mother-of-five from Alvaston, Derby, said she was outraged by the ‘lack of knowledge’ and called for staff to be given more training.
She said: ‘I took Tommy-Lee to hospital because he was poorly and I noticed as I got out of my vehicle that he was not breathing.
‘I rushed him through the doors in a panic and asked the receptionist to get help immediately. Instead of finding a doctor, she decided to take my details and told me to sit down and wait my turn.
‘I couldn’t believe it. My baby was not breathing and I was told to wait.
‘I ignored that and rushed him through the doors and found a female doctor who did life support on him.
‘He had episodes where he stopped breathing after that. He was then ventilated and transferred to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.’ TommyLee is still on a ventilator, but both he and Arlow-Jack are slowly making a full recovery.
Miss Cowie said: ‘I just can’t believe how anybody could be that irresponsible. If I had waited, my baby could have died.
‘I told the doctor what had happened and she said: “She probably just needs more training”. I haven’t received an apology and it’s not on. My baby’s life was at risk.’
A spokesman for Derby Teaching Hospitals said: ‘Our first priority is always the safe care of the babies and children brought to our children’s emergency department, and thanks to the expertise of our highly skilled emergency team, the baby in this case received appropriate care.
‘We were concerned to find that a receptionist failed to immediately recognise the serious nature of this situation, as this is highly unusual for our dedicated team of reception staff.
‘We immediately started an investigation and we are now reviewing the training we give to reception staff in the children’s emergency department.
‘We are also happy to meet Ms Cowie to explain the steps we have taken.’