Trust your insticts
PARENTS SHOULD ‘TRUST THEIR INSTINCTS’ ABOUT TESTS
A County Durham mum is warning other parents to trust their instincts after she says doctors misdiagnosed her son.
Lyndsey Metcalf rushed her twoyear-old son, Archie, to the University of North Durham Hospital because he had a high temperature and was struggling to breathe.
The youngster has a hole in his heart, which makes him particularly prone to chest infections and has previously had pneumonia.
After waiting four hours in the accident and emergency room, Archie was taken to the children’s ward where a doctor initially diagnosed him with asthma.
But, Lyndsey, of Stanley, was not convinced that was the problem and asked the doctor to do an x-ray, with the results showing Archie had pneumonia again.
Lyndsey, 28, said: “He gets chest infections a lot and when he didn’t get any better I thought it was time to take him to hospital.
“We went to A&E and were told there was only one nurse and doctor around that day. Then we were finally seen after four hours and it felt like they were trying to rush us out.”
The family was transferred to the children’s ward where a doctor said the tot had asthma.
Lyndsey said: “When the doctor saw him they said he had asthma but I didn’t think that was the problem and asked for an x-ray.
“The doctor said ‘Apart from that is there anything else you want?’ but the x-ray came back and showed he had pneumonia.”
The mum-of-two fears that if she hadn’t trusted her instinct Archie’s condition could have deteriorated.
“We have been told he will need open heart surgery on the hole in his heart and pneumonia is quite serious,” she said. “We were told that the little air sacks on his lungs had already started to collapse.”
Lyndsey, who works as a hairdresser, wants to warn other parents to trust their instincts when it comes to their children. She added: “I just feel like parents need to be aware that they should trust their instincts and not be afraid to ask for tests to be carried out.”
A spokesperson for County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, said, “We are very sorry that Ms Metcalf is unhappy with aspects of the care her son received following his admission to hospital. We are in contact with Ms Metcalf and will respond to her concerns following a full investigation of the issues she has raised with us.”