Hospital For Sick Children, A Mother’s Complaint
Hospital for Sick Children should be renamed to Hospital for Tortured Children just as my husband said.
The Hospital For Sick Children is also known as one of the largest paediatric academic health science centres in the world, with an international reputation for excellence in health care, research, and teaching. They have a reputation of an excellent medical servise not only in Toronto but also around the world.
I just cannot understand why!!!?????
I know many of you will say that there are kids in far worth health condition than my son was at the time of our visit but trust me the point isn’t here. I just want to know who is responsible for the time waisted and pain and suffering that not only my son went through but all the other kids and their parents. So you can better understand, here is our little story about our resent emergency visit to the Sick Kids.
On the night of 22 December my husband, my son, 19 month and I visited the emergency department due to my son’s injury. He injured his left arm while we were walking from Christmas shopping to our car. My little boy tripped and almost fell. I said almost because he didn’t actually fell, as I was holding his hand. My first reaction of corse was to hold on tight to him but as he was falling one wrong move and he was on his knees and sideways. All happened too fast to understand what actually happened but he did started to cry so I picked him up, carried him to the car, and drove home. He was crying all the way and I thought that he is only tired and wants to go to sleep but when we got home I noticed that he refused to use his hand and it was painful for him even to have it touched. We rushed to the nearest hospital and had him checked. After a few hours we were sent home with Tylenol and were told to monitor him. Our boy would not settle down and after a dose of Tylenol he went to sleep only for one hour. After he woke up screaming we decided to take him to Sick Kids. On the way we picked up our x-rays from the first hospital and rushed to Sick Kids full of hopes. We arrived at the hospital at around midnight. After long, long registration process we finally spoke to an admitting nurse. After hearing what happened and looking at my son’s injured arm, she said that he has a pulled elbow. Also, she said that she would be able to fix it but prefers not to as she cannot handle baby’s cry and she doesn’t want to cause him any more pain that he is already in. The nurse also spoke to another nurse who just walked into the room and told her that it is her department so maybe she can do it. That nurse said that she prefers that the doctor does it. The admitting nurse gave a dose of a Tylenol to my son and sent us to wait some more.
How disappointing it was to wait for so long to get any help. We were bouncing from one room to another for more than five hours. Finally, after 5 hour wait we were given a room where we spent another hour waiting for a nurse to come and check his vital status. After that we asked if it will be long before we see the doctor from this point and were given an even more disappointing and frustrating response. We were told that there is a long wait before we can see the doctor even though we had a room already. By now my son was screaming from pain again and I went to ask for some more Tylenol. After half an hour when no one came with the medicine I went to look for the nurse who gave him Tylenol the first time but was not able to find her and had to go back and ask if I can give my son my own pain medication if they are unable to help. One nurse said that she will be there in a minute and after another 15 minutes of seeing my son screaming and suffering I gave him my own medication, Motrin. By then my husband was very frustrated, after all, we were told that it is a few minute job to fix the pulled elbow and that the pain goes away as soon as it is fixed, he started complaining to the nurses and asking how long do we need to see our son to scream in pain, how long will we all be tortured sitting in a tiny room and seeing our son have no escape from pain. We were told by a nurse that unfortunately our son is NOT SICK ENOUGH TO GET PRIORITY!!!!!!!
I couldn’t believe my ears…..Does my son has to stop breathing to get any attention??? It was unbelievable!!!! My husband was furios…
I know that at this point some of you will say for sure that all I am doing now is complaining but NO I am not!!! All of you DO!!! You know why??? Here is the reason.
Many of you take the transit to work and many many people depend on the service. Not one I am sure likes to see delays because nobody wants to be late for work. Guess what! My husband is driving one of those subway trains that you guys are taking to work and he ended up booking off with family emergency because we spent all night at the hospital and he didn’t get any rest and he wasn’t going to put any of you in danger just because of his sleepless night. So, I am sure one more train got parked that morning during rush hour because my husband was not there. Now do you get the picture???
So back to the Hospital with perfect reputation…
Basicaly, we were not able to sit and watch our tiny, helpless baby son suffer any longer. My husband picked our little 19 month old boy up and we left. WITHOUT GETTING ANY HELP!!!!!
We did learn a good lesson though. You have to be half dead and not breathing in order to get help at the Sick Kids Hospital . And we know for sure that we will never go back to seek help there, unfortunately. What a shame for “best” children’s hospital.
I know our story will not be published on their web site of Miracle Recovery Stories which are posted there in order for all of you sensitive and caring people to give them donations for their “great” work, but we will be sending messages and emails to different departments and spread the word of the “kindness” and “sensitivity” of The Sick Kids Hospital personnel.
Thank you for reading and hope you will be more lucky than we were.
P.S. Just a quick update on our son’s injury. He is getting better and better by the minute. He is gaining back the motion in his arm. We did ended up taking him to an after hour clinic for kids where we were helped withing an hour. Thank to the Dr.Patel and all caring staff our son is getting better.
Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:04 am
It sounds like there was a fundamental miscommunication in this situation. The nurses ought to have been explained to you that triage (the process whereby patients are organized for treatment) works based primarily on two priorities: bleeding and breathing.
If you aren’t bleeding, and you’re breathing, you’re going to the back of the queue. That’s all there is to it. You’re conscious, breathing, crying? All good signs. Wait your turn.
Consider this: the whole time you were waiting with your son, there were ambulances and helicopters delivering children from all over the province with serious, life-threatening injuries, each one pushing your son further and further down the line.
A hospital is not like a deli. It does not operate on a first come, first serve basis. Although your child was no doubt injured, it was not life-threatening. Did you stop to consider that there were likely children who were dying ahead of you in the queue?
Remember, they treat children with rare, terminal, and life-threatening illnesses at Sick Kids. And yet you would question the hospital’s world-class status? I’m sorry, but an elbow injury is simply not a priority. Basic first aid would tell you that. Common sense would tell you that.
Unfortunately, every parent in every hospital likely feels that their child is the sickest of the sick, and I don’t fault you for that: you must have felt terrible and helpless, seeing your child hurting, without being able to help. What an awful, frustrating feeling.
However, it is for this very reason that after-hours clinics exist. Hospitals are for the seriously injured. For everything else, a non-emergency setting like a clinic is appropriate. If your son had been accidentally poisoned, for example, I would have no issue with you going straight to the ER. But for an injury treatable with Tylenol? Why waste the hospital’s (and your family’s) time?
This is what contributes to long wait times: individuals unfamiliar with how the system works go to the hospital with minor injuries, cuts and bruises, the sniffles, and other inane concerns. And then they complain about how long they have to wait to be treated! Absurd.
Six hours sounds like a pretty typical waiting time for a minor injury, I’m sorry to say. That was my last experience, accompanying a friend with a head injury to a hospital here in Edmonton. Is it a perfect system? Absolutely not. Ought waiting times be a serious government priority? Definitely yes.
I think your lesson learned is a good one, though, even if you did style it as a complaint. Your story will assist others in thinking twice about making the hospital their first stop for every minor cut, bruise or scrape — which is a good thing.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:28 am
I have to say – after having worked in several ER’s (as a Nurse) and having worked at Sick Kids, that what I find the most frustrating is the people that come to the ER with non emergent issues. Honestly, it costs the government 280.00 just to register in the ER. The prices go up from there. Then people come for “quick fixes” even though they may have been treated in another facility/clinic like this family.
Have you ever stopped to consider that there is a huge shortage of nurses, yet we cannot turn anyone away – even if we know they shouldn’t have wasted our time and theirs coming to the ER? We sometimes work all night without breaks, and without food, because the ER is filled with 60-70% of patients who are WASTING OUR TIME!!!
Sick Kids gets children from all over the world! They have the second highest acuity in the world and perform procedures that no other hospitals do. They have true emergencies dozens of times each shift. A pulled elbow – especially one that was already seen and xrayed and found NOT to be broken, is very low in the queue and to suggest the hospital is bad for that reason just goes to show how ignorant some people are.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Here we go. Out come the fierce defences of Sick Kids. Who are we to besmirch the sacred reputation of the sacrosanct Sick Kids? Let us all go and bow down before the precious institution and utter no blasphemous comments that might in any way suggest any sort of complaint about the ‘world class’ Hospital for Sick Children.
Hogwash!!
I, for one, _HATE_ the ‘precious’ Hospital for Sick Children. I will never, ever give them my support or respect.
I brought my son there several times for both acute and non-acute illnesses and was patronized and talked down to, each and every time. It wasn’t that I had to wait, the staff and clinicians were incredibly unprofessional and incompetent. My mother is an RN who worked in pediatrics for over 30 years, in hospital, and she was appalled. I was given incredibly bad direction and treatment advice. So, by the time he was critically ill and treatment from Sick Kids was going absolutely nowhere, in fact, from bad to worse, I said F you to Sick Kids and its precious ‘world-class’ treatment facility and went to the US for treatment. There the clinicians weren’t stuck on themselves and their standing in the medical community. They actually, GASP!, examined the patient and then treated him appropriately. No condescension, no snarky comments, no ‘well that’s not how we do it here’ attitude. My son is now recovered, no thanks to Sick Kids.
So, don’t give me this crap about taking kids from all over the province and the world and about it being a leader. How about that kid from Vietnam who had the growth on his face that Sick Kids chose not to treat. There was hell to pay because a second opinion was suggested. Then doctors at a Boston area children’s hospital actually undertook to help the kid. I watched that case with interest and was exceedingly glad that they chose to take that child to the US for treatment. At least there, they dared to treat him.
And so the doctors in the US dared to treat my son. For what my son needed to be treated for, Sick Kids is literally in the dark ages and the treatment we received in the U.S. is light years ahead. (and I’ll argue till I’m blue faced with anyone who says that Sick Kids and Canadian health care is better than the U.S. – because in our case it was definitely not the truth).
And it’s really a galling shame too. Because if you have a kid that has something acutely wrong with them, some rare disease, needs something reconstructed, transplanted, a bone set, etc, then, I’ll grudgingly admit, yeah, it probably can’t be beat. But, if you have a child who has a chronic disease, then forget it. And further, if you have a child who has a disease that the medical establishment refuses to admit they caused, even worse for you.
Sick Kids claims to be ‘world leaders’ in pediatrics, but from what I’ve seen, they fail miserably.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I think the demeanor of the patient’s family plays heavily in situations such as this. I have been at this hospital for chronic care and emergency occassions over the years. It is best to remain calm (although you are not), be thankful for every little thing (even being recognized in the waiting room) and take the time to remember names. That leads to forging a relationship that the understaffed nurses will appreciate. At the very worst you have names to report behaviour unbecoming and onprofessional.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Sorry to hear you had such a negative response. My son is a patient of there for a heart condition. I absolutely LOVE that hospital and can’t say enough good things about the doctor’s and nurses. I feel very fortunate to have such an incredible medical centre less than 30 minutes away. We are very blessed.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
So those of you who have stepped up to defend the hospital have apparently decided that a pulled elbow does not justify attending the ER. How about a fractured skull with bleeding in the brain? This is what I brought my five and a half month old baby in for and I received even worse treatment than the one complained of in this complaint. Don’t get me wrong, I encountered some great nurses and doctors during our stay at the hospital (we went through emergency and stayed for two days), but the hospital definitely requires improvement both systemically (in terms of standard operating procedure) and personally (in terms of bedside manners).
Just a quick overview. At first we were told it was just a bump on the head and were directed to their urgent care clinic to wait for 3-4 hours. We then insisted on an x-ray and a fracture was revealed. We then insisted on a CT Scan. A doctor came to tell us that the CT scan was clear and we were relieved. An hour later a neurosurgeon came to tell us that in fact the CT scan revealed blood in our daugther’s brain.
I appreciate what sick kids does. But if you’re argument is that it is only meant to treat dying patients from around the world then don’t lead everyone to believe that it is a standard emergency room. In addition, even the best hospitals have room for improvement. Instead of relying of the honours bestowed on the hospital let’s try and make it better.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I’m going to jump in to defend the hospitals. Feel free to stop reading if you can’t tolerate views different from your own. My opinion is not specific to Sick Kids hospital, it applies to every hospital I’ve ever visited in Canada.
I will start by stating a very obvious fact: our health care system is defective. It is understaffed and overburdened. However, I do not think it is underfunded. The problem, like many others have said already, is they expend an unreasonable amount of resources on people who don’t need hospital care, people who would be better served by a visit to the general clinic the next morning. Ideally, we should have 24-hour clinics in every major city to serve these people, but that is a political issue for another site.
Let me give you a golden example of what an ER is not supposed to deal with. Many years ago, I was in a nasty car accident. I was lucky, walked away with just a few small cuts from the shattered glass, but I was still taken to the hospital. I sat in the waiting room for 3-4 hours until an R.N. looked at me, took my vitals, then quickly cleaned up my wounds. No x-ray, nothing beyond basic first-aid. I could have, and should have, done that myself. In fact, they were so hurried that I still had bits of glass embedded in my skin, which I cleaned up myself at home. My life was not in danger at all.
I considered my visit to be a waste of both the hospital’s time and my own, but it had not been my choice as I was a minor at the time. If the same thing happened today, I would not burden the hospital with such trivialities.
While I will concede that small children lack the ability to evaluate their own health, parents should still make a sane effort to assess the situation before sounding the alarms and giving in to panic. You and your child are no more important than anyone else in the hospital – making a scene of it will do nothing to help. Parents have earned a bad reputation in emergency rooms all over the country, because they are constantly crying wolf. It isn’t a stretch to say that nurses and doctors have become desensitized to the real issues, as a direct result of all the self-righteous parents wasting their time.
What if it were a different industry ? What if it was your job ? I’ve had so many people squander my time and interest with trivialities and false alarms, people who want to convince me they are god and I am their bitch, it has left me cynical and jaded. I’m not a nurse, just a computer programmer, so I can certainly sympathize with health care workers and the stress they endure every day. At least I have the freedom to turn down clients I don’t want; perhaps hospitals should be empowered to do the same, or at least get the funding they need to implement progressive changes so that even the non-emergencies can be handled in an efficient manner.
March 2nd, 2010 at 6:05 pm
I agree with the complaints. I was referred to a specialist. I did not want my daughter to be concerned, and I have no worries. the secretary said it’s perfectly safe for me to leave her in the waiitng room while I spoke to the doctor. well first i had to see a counsellor, then the doctor, which meant after a one hour wait in a dinky room with NOTHING for the kids to do except a few old books, my 5 year was unattended for 45 minutes in a non secure room, totally unsupervised. this is world class kids care? I think not.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Before you go and defend this hospital, think of how many kids dies due to staff negligence each day.It’s not something you hear on tv… I personally know people who work there and hear horrible stories of kids dying… We were in the hospital yesterday, my 8 month old had 40 degrees fever under armpit for 4 days, was dehydrated refused food and drink, had severe vomiting and cried non stop. The triage nurse saw how unwell my child was so they gave Tylenol, I asked how much I can give her (considering she was on it for the past 4 days I didn’t want to give more than I should)she told me that she will go find out, then she came back started calculating making mistakes in calculations and didn’t know what to do… Then she said and i quote ” give how much you want” at that point my mothers started raising my voice at them because at that point the child was coming out of consiousness we asked for the doctors with tears on our eyes. the nurses did not know what to do.. the nurse that was helping us got up and said and I quote ” i don’t know what to do, call a doctor” got up and left..another nurse came and took us to “urgent care” (it’s a place for non-serious conditions… no doctors what so ever) another girl working there we asked her for a wash cloth because at that point we started rubbing my child with warm water to reduce a fever, after a couple of hour it was a success. after a long wait a nurse came and told us that we were pout in a wrong department and we should go back to emerg. The doctor there was amazing so was the nurse there.The doctor was shocked that we were not accepted right away cause the child was ill…. we went and asked 2 nurses for the 1st and last names; one of them refused and said I quote ” I forgot it” then m husband said it right there and pointed at it; she lied said it was not it and we know that it is caus we have family and friends working there and the turn they badge around so no one knows their name… after she said said she just does not want to share this information with us. may I remind you they are not allowed to do that! she said
“should I call security?” my husband said “please call them” she pretended she is busy with something else. Then one hour later she went to security and i heard her saying to him some lies, sch as we were calling her names and yelling, very untrue…. he came out to talk to us but did not say anything because he knew us very well cause he worked with someone close to me at that hospital and knew us very well that we will never start a fight and never raise our voice in any circumstances…he gave us a green light to do what we want may I remind you cause he knew we never ever raise voice…
So before and you go and defend people there is amazing and not so amazing people work there…they can be sure i will be talking to the supervisor there tomorrow morning and I will get an apology letter….i will make sure they don’t treat anyone the same way… cause there is a lot of sick kids and parents that don’t know what to do… I don’t want their kid to be on another statistic list of dead kids.,.
July 9th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
The only people on here sticking up for the sick kids hospital are obviously doctors, so your opinion is not valid. I experienced 11 hours of hell there with my 3 year old daughter. For 10 days she had a minimum 39.4 fever and barely ate a thing, during that time we tried the tele-health thing, and going to a doctor. But the doctor could only assume she had a bladder infection because she is not fully potty-trained,and could not give a urine sample. The meds didn’t help and the pharmacist recommended sick kids because they could use a catheter to take a proper sample. Sounds great but after a longgg wait (which is ok because of emergency patients arriving at anytime)3 or 4 kids in their 20’s with no obvious experience messed up the first catheter try, saying my daughter was to blame because of the way her (area is shaped)and left a bag under her diaper for hours waiting for a sample.They also made a big mess that shouldn’t have been, and torturing my daughter. And hours later when finally a few great doctors that i liked very much came in,i explained my complaints and he said he would send in a more experienced nurse to try it again. Therefore admitting the other doctors mistake, plus he said he did not like the fact that that bag was on here for so long because she didn’t pee during this time. He said only minutes it should be on, and then try another because of the bacteria risk surrounding that area (duh) and that even if she did pee they would have had to throw it out because of contamination and not knowing if the bacteria is inside her or outside. Not once did the 4 or 5 rookies mention this during the whole time putting her at risk for worse problems, and having to use a catheter twice in a few hours could give her problems there throughout her life. And it took them forever to find a vain in either arm, also after they said that one of them would be back in a couple of minutes and over an hour later i looked around for someone and i hear (oh, no one has been in there lately) so if your quiet like most people you get no or bad service. And i had to get very MAD, i did everything except treating anyone, violence or break anything in there. Yet i am basically alone in my rage being told by docs and family to shush, but if i didn’t i probably wouldn’t have got the good service i eventually got. Plus they will never think they did anything wrong. So please anyone who ever has to go there remember this and stick up for yourself when needed. Because it’s not about wanting to be treated better then any family there…. its about getting the right treatment without jeopardizing who your there to help and support 🙁
October 21st, 2010 at 9:52 am
Sick Kids is the worst hospital I have ever encountered. Toronto should be ashamed. My story is too long to tell here, but my family has never seen such rudeness in our lives. We left feeling very angry and we will NEVER return. Please people, if you care about your children, take them elsewhere.
March 8th, 2011 at 12:03 am
Unfortunately, Sick kids seems to be all about marketing and PR. I suppose that’s the new way of doing Hospital Business in order to get funding and financial support. The “One Doctor” “one nurse” teams on Emergency Duty are truly sickening. I’m always so “sad” to be bothering such “pedestals of medicine”.
I would much rather have my child treated by the junior doctors who really do the work rather than the seniors. The only experience those more mature doctors have is how to look down on their little patience.
Marketing and Medicine…. sickening
March 8th, 2011 at 12:04 am
I wonder if the CEO of sick kids is compensated enough??
March 8th, 2011 at 1:32 am
“DisneyLand of Medicine”… Sick Kids Hospital
Sick Kids facility is certainly a beautiful, clean and efficient place and I have a number of friends who’s children owe their lives to your facility and it’s members.
As a father of two girls, I can tell you from my talks with numerous friends and colleges… there is no other medical facility that I would trust with my child’s well being, up until this week.
I must tell you that I am livid with the rude and condescending behavior of the senior doctors in your Emergency room.
I am ashamed of myself as a father and a husband for not saying anything to the doctor for the manner in which he spoke to may family… but out of past respect for the “reputation” of this hospital I relinquished my father and husbandhood. Shame on me!
My daughter was sent to Sick Kids by Tele-Health, I will not make that mistake again.
I will do my best that my friends and colleges are made aware that there are better alternatives for children’s health than going to the “DisneyLand of Medicine”… Sick Kids Hospital
Let us all try and financially support other children’s facilities to provide even higher levels of professionalism and service to children rather than to waste our financial resources and donations on past reputations.
April 17th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Do yo know the meaning of “EMERGENCY”?? It simply means LIFE OR DEATH! Seriously people! If you are talking your child to the emergency room for bladder infections, stitches, bruises, fevers over the age of 1, then expect to wait. Its the exact nonsense that causes long waits. If you are not seen fast enough after you have been seen by the intake nurse, then you are NOT AN EMERGENCY! Go to your family doctor and stop cloggin up the emergency rooms!
July 5th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
Horrible hygiene, missed medications, incorrect medications, missed blood transfusions, transporting a child with zero white count in the public elevator and to top it off, suffocating him and possibly causing brain injury. Not going there again. Horrible horrible hospital
July 29th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
thats to bad but at least your child was in your safe hands when I was 5 yrs old, I was a patient there and all I can remember was being slapped around and abused by a nurse the memory is still in my mind. My parents could’nt afford to come and see me because it was to far and they had other children to care for, they were financially poor. I was a patient for six months alone with my abusive nurse. Yes it is awful to see a child suffer even though our stories are different it is still sad for the pain your child had to go through.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:56 am
It is indeed so sad to hear this dated from 2008. I saw comments from workers of Sick kids. Sick kids DOCTORS are really wonderful, BUT Nurses got to be well trained especially for children. My child of 2 yrs old had 6 surgeries already in past 2 years. If it was a fever, we would have gone to clinics nearby. He cried all night with pain, because of the surgeries he’s been through, we took him to Sick kids right away. There administration were really prompt and caring. We got a room. Waited for 2 and a half hour , not even a nurse came to see us. I then went to see how long more we have to wait. They told us 2 more patients ahead of us. Then a nurse came to take his vital and said as soon as doctor is available he will come. After 2 more hours of waiting(total of 4 1/2 hrs) i went to see again just to ask. One of the staff said, there are 6, 7… ahead of us. Then i said 2 hrs before there were 2 and now there are more. She replied there are sick children who came after you and have priority. Then I asked her so, my child is not sick, then i can go ? She said let’s see, go and wait your turn will be next.
Shortly after the doctor came. Doctors are amazing. Once he saw the history of my child, he ordered an -ray, my child had to be admitted to the hospital immediately and undergone a major surgery shortly after.
This is so sad, especially when children are suffering like that and they can’t talk to tell you what’s going on. Hope the nurses will get a little bit of compassion for these tiny kids. Just think about it on yourself (the nurses), would you like yr children to suffer like that?????
Sick kids hospital is really great, life saver. specific requirements should be needed in hiring the nurses. Old nurses are absolutely great. You can conclude because they are mothers and understand. I only pray that no other children would suffer again. Thank you very much for understanding.
November 11th, 2011 at 11:17 am
Another comment: Nurses at NICU are all young, and very reliable, extraordinary, extra caring! Therefore i guess extra training had been given to them. I guess that extra training should be given to all nurses and must have a feedback sheets on all nurses for follow up. I’m not the only parent complaining. I heard this from a lot more whilst i was there!
Thank you.
November 27th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
I dislike that hopsital very much. I think it is a racist hosptail. I am asian and they only seem to be helping the white kids. My cousin has a viral infection , and they kept tending to the less white sick kids.All my cosuin needed was some meds for his infection , now he needs sugery to remvove what is now a growth on his neck. To sick kids hosptail , please live up to this great image you have been given. You guys are full of bull**** and the doctors there are morons. A bunch of 20-something year old who do not know what the hell to do! Get rid of your egos , just because you guys are doctors doesn’t mean you get to chose you is more or less important!
November 27th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
You guys are silly. In US there is also waiting time. Unless you have money or a person of great imnportance , then they will treat you. May I ask if any of you have to take out about $30,000 to help fix your kids ? Because that usaully the cost for treatment for any diesease of some sort , and if you are not US citizens , you have to pay even more! While I agree that Sick Kids hopsital is very much overhyped, its a tad bit better than the US hopstials and their systems. I have american friends who went to such universisites like Harvard , Yale , Princeton do not even work in normal hospitals, they go work in those fancy ones , privitized because they do it for money. That how the menatalty is in the US medical field. Money , Money , Money! I even lived in the US , they turn you away if you don’t have health insurance. So you guys are defending that ?
November 27th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
I can see why people are upset. Yes there are kids who are far worse off but does that mean that the others are not even important ? If the other kids don’t get treated , then they will end up being the servely ill ones evenatully! I don’t like doctors , very snarky and rude people. These doctors are not even ivy-leagued educated! I am a buisness man who went to Harvard Business School of Management ! I would never talk to my clients like how these doctors do to theirs ! I know that medicine and business are diffrent careers but they both require a person to behave prosfessionaly and be nice to their clients . Basics like seeing your clients on times , informing them if you can’t see them , doing your job , making sure that they are satisfied with you. From What I have read here , these doctors are lacking these basic elements of professionalism.
November 27th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
This is a lie. Sick Kids hospital is overparised alot. So what if this womans kid was not’sick enough” how sick did he have to be to get even a doctor to see him ? I was haveing an arguemnt with a doctor recently who works thee. He said that this hospital is “world class” ?!??!? WORLD CLASS!!??!?!?!?? WHat kind of nurse/ doctors tells the parents who have taken the time and effort to bring their child there that their kid is “not sick enough” to recive treatemt? Is this the behavior of a “world class hospital” from the peole who work there ?
November 27th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
So true , I don’t really like that hospital. I don’t like how the go around begging for money for us to give to their charities. An bad encounter with one of the volunterers wroking there , she called me greedy and selifh for not giving money to their”charity” ! For one , I have my own needs to take care , and I had politely refused to donate money , I did not tell her of f**k off or anything like that . Where do they get off talking like this people , mind you she looked about early teens , I am a gradute from law school and a laywer by profession , who is she to talk to me like this ? Do they encourage their volunteeras to talk like this to people ? I will be complaing to the hospital for this.
November 27th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
awful hosptail service , yes it should not be like a deli but show us that you guys are better than that ! alot of the doctors are bad because they are all private school kids who have tons of meony , so these are the idiots who they have hire to treat people.
November 27th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
I have had a bad expeince too. My kid had a horrible , but treatable diesease but they did not do sqat about it! I even had called the head of the department ! She was on vaction when I called her! Now my kids disease is gone but he has breathing problems now. I will never recomend you guys send your kids here , these people have a ego they size of the earth and act like you are dumber than them. Yeah I may not be a doctor but I have more smypathy and better understanding for people than you guys do. I hope this head of the departemnt got fired, she did nothing. I called her at two diffrent time frame and she was on vaction both times ! Once she was in Sweden and another time she was in Hawaii!
November 28th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Ditto , worst hospital ever. Staff and doctors there are such a**holes! Rude and egostiscal! Fine , I get it , you guys are doctors , went to university , have a fancy degree but it’s not like they went to Harvard or anything !If you want to behave snobbish and arrogant , then have something impressive about you ! You guys are just one of the millions , and millions and millions of doctors around the world. Just because you guy work at a “top” hospital doesn’t give you the right to talk down on the parents or the patients themselves!
November 28th, 2011 at 11:12 am
I don’t like this hosptial. It the attitude of the people working there that bothers me. It should be renamed “The Hospital for the Rich White Sicks Kids ” , cause that the only kids they give a damn about ! Doesn’t matter if they are not as sick as the other non-whites kids , they still get treated and looked at first!
November 28th, 2011 at 11:14 am
who cares ? really I never understood why “sick kids” has been so greatly praised. They behave like the doctors in the usa , there are better hosptials and clinc that do better treatment than them.
November 28th, 2011 at 11:19 am
Worst fucking hospital in Canada . I can’t belive that Candians are acatully proud of this run-down thrid world country type hospital! My own doctor who is in private practice does better work than them. I cannot stand this one doctors at sick kids , some indian woman who was nice at first but she became very rude and arrogant with us. She acted like she knew everything and that she was only smart one there amongst us. Well , now my kid needs one of those speical breathing tanks for him , how do you like that now ?
November 28th, 2011 at 11:24 am
I have not gone to or had a freind/family there who have been to Sick Kids but I alway had a feeling that they were not this great facilty they always cliam to be. I don’t like how they are always shoving pictures and vidoes of ill children in our faces to donate money. I mean yeah , I feel bad for them but I really don’t give a hoot about them. I heard that the Sick Kids in England was running a fraud charity , and it was the Dean of the hospital running it !My god , and they claim to be world class leaders in childrens health !Is that the behaviour of a world class hospiital ?Having the Dean run a sham charity ? What is it called , oh LYING!
November 28th, 2011 at 11:27 am
Yeah , you are right , Sick Kids only helps the really ill kids , but some of the kids get sent there because they are not stable or they really need to see a professional. A “world class hospital” doesn’t tell the parent of the child that “they are not sick enough to see us ” this is not india , this is canada , so please.
November 28th, 2011 at 11:29 am
WHy do you complan abotu the goverment spending ? If you all want to make money then you should have gone into private practice ! Get the hell out of the public system if all you cares about is money !
November 28th, 2011 at 11:34 am
my child wnet there and he was treated badly. so I wll never give my support to these people either.
December 3rd, 2011 at 5:03 pm
I had a terrible experience at Sick Kid’s hospital just yesterday. My daughter had been referred to the Anxiety Clinic at Sick Kids by her pediatrician. It took 6 months to get the appointment. We prepped our girl as well as we could for the evaluation and a few days before the appointment the doctor (Dr. Samirah Al-Ghamdi a fellow) canceled without explanation. This came after weeks of the doctor not responding to simple requests for information and confirmation regarding the appointment. After the initial appointment was canceled my husband and I followed up with voicemails (5 in total) and received no response. We simply wanted information regarding when we could expect another appointment to be scheduled. We finally asked the intake coordinator to help us track her down. The intake coordinator apologized profusely for Dr. Al-Ghamdi’s failure to respond. The next day we received a call from the doctor re-scheduling the appointment for Dec 2, 2011. We prepped our little girl the night before. She has a tremendous fear of hospitals and was frightened that something was wrong with her “mentally.” We coached her through her anxiety telling her that hospitals are good places and that she would not be be hurt in anyway. We told her we were going as a family to get help with the anxious feelings she was experiencing. We arrived the next morning at the Anxiety Clinic and were subsequently harassed for not registering our daughter properly at the intake desk. Perhaps we should have been aware of this, but we genuinely were not aware that we needed to bring a health card and to register her for what we thought was a meeting. We did not realize she was a patient.We were also not given the appropriate information in advance to prepare us for this appointment which easily could have avoided the confusion that ensued. We were questioned by the receptionist and she gave us her card and said we could call our daughters health card number in after the appointment. Dr Al-Ghamdi came into the reception area and instantly disapproved that we had not registered our daughter. She directed us to her office and barely introduced herself. She immediately interrogated my husband and I about why we didn’t bring our daughter’s health card. She scolded us and then started an argument with my husband stating that she told him to bring the health card. This all occurred in front of my 9 year old daughter who was there for an anxiety assessment. We left the doctor’s office, my husband in a rage and myself in tears. My little girl was in shock. I asked for a supervisor immediately. The supervisor came into the room and we told him our story. He was surprised and instantly went into damage control mode and began offering to pay our parking, offered my daughter stickers, toys, presents. It was bizarre. Nice way to introduce your anxious child to the world of anxiety treatment at the world’s leading children’s hospital. We are still reeling from our experience- we are not sure how to proceed. We are pretty shaken up. It was interesting to see how the hospital staff put administrative protocol as a priority over a child’s treatment for mental well being. Needless to say we will seek other institutions to help our daughter. Dr. Al-Ghamdi was rude, arrogant and completely insensitive to her patient’s needs. My daughter’s fear and suspicion of hospitals has not been dissuaded. Her condition has not been diagnosed and she left the hospital feeling more anxious than ever. We will not be back and I caution anyone who attempts to get responsible treatment from the Anxiety Clinic at Sick Kids Hospital. What an embarrassment.
December 22nd, 2011 at 11:31 am
From reading all of the above posts, here are a few obvious ideas:
1) Go to your family doctor, rather than the emergency room unless your child is seriously ill. Usually a fever in a toddler or child is not a reason to go to the emergency room
2) There are nice people and not so nice people everywhere – and that includes SickKids. Some have better bed-side manner than others. In US hospitals, there is more ‘customer service’ because you’re paying hundreds of dollars, up front, just to go sit in the emergency room. That is a deterrent for families with mildly ill children from going to the emergency room. In Canada, that deterrent doesn’t exist and the ERs are backlogged with semi-urgent or non-urgent complaints. US hospitals would be glad to see these children with mild illnesses because the parents (or their private insurance) pay $300 just to walk in the door. Maybe there should be a small user fee – even $10 to go the emergency room – that may make some choose a walk-in clinic rather than the ER.
3) Remember that everyone that works in a hospital are people too, just like you. They’re not automatons with an absence feelings. Patients (or their parents) that get into a frenzy because of waiting increase the anxiety of everyone involved. Treating the nurses, doctors, RTs and phlebotomists with respect is just the right thing to do. You would expect no less if you were in their position. Remember: Do unto others….. it starts with you. Besides, you need to be a good role model of behaviour for your child.
4) You are free, at any time, to get up and leave, and sign out of any hospital at any time.
February 20th, 2012 at 12:04 am
They only care about the budget. My son has been neglected by them and now can hardly walk. I need to meet with others to form a group…they have to be exposed..please comment under this if you feel your child is in danger
March 27th, 2012 at 11:13 am
I had a great experience at Sick Kids a few weeks ago. I brought my son because we thought his arm could be broken after he fell from jumping off the couch. I felt bad going in case it was just a sprain and I was tying up the hospital’s resources. He was x-rayed within an hour and had a temporary cast put on an hour after that. We came back for the permanent cast and everything went smoothly.
But I know it is so hard when you have a sick child to stay at all level-headed, especially with things like fevers,, when they are crying and you don’t know how to help them. I feel for al the families who had bad experiences, but I do think it is great that health care is available to everyone, not just those with expensive insurance.
April 12th, 2012 at 12:55 am
I have an 21 months boy who had a visit to emergency room last Sunday (Apr 8, 2012). The doctor in charge is Neelands, Pat. We had a horrable experience when we were there. My baby had Otitis media ( ear infection) right ear, Dr Neelands gave him Amoxicillin Suspension 8ml/time twice/day. When my baby got that medicine, his health even worse. He cried more and did not act much therefor I had to call my family doctor and found out that he should take another one, not the Amoxicillin Suspension Dr Neelands gave us because he had that before. Although we did gave Dr Neelands our medicine we gave to our son, I dont understand why she still gave us Amoxicillin with high dose like that (8ml/time x 2 = 16ml/day he took).
And when we asked Dr Neelands should we come back to the hospital if my son continue has fever, she said “No, you should bring him to your family doctor because the gov has to pay $500 for each time u come to th emergency and only $25 for each time to your family doctor”. We was suprised. It should be our son’s health she should care about not the MONEY GOV PAY although we explained that our family doctor didnt work on holidays.
I’ve never EVER met a doctor who just talked about MONEY not PATIENT’S HEALTH like that before. When we go to the hospital it means that we need help for our health, in this case is our baby’s health. MONEY doesnt mean anything here, rite? Now our baby is very tired, he cried all days which doesnt happened before. He was a heathy and funny boy.
I think there should be someone do something with this problem. Lucky that our family doctor changed the medicine on time otherwise I dont know what gonna happen with my little boy.
Thank you,
Jenny.
December 6th, 2014 at 1:01 am
I am very frustrated with doctors at that hospital. Especially we have had too many bad experience. I took my son to see doctors in the eye clinic of sickkids hospital when he was only 4month old. The retina specialist diagnose the wrong disease. We had been refused when we asked for second opinions. We had to took my son to see another doctor in Detroit. And thanks to him my son had surgery and keep one eye good. We went back to see doctor in sickkids, they were very rude and mad at me,they blame my husband and i took my son to other doctors.even last week I took my son there the doctor had no idea and have to ask somebody else to help. His helper was very rude and had no patient at all. I cann’t say that this hospital is very suck but utilities and equipment do not meaning world class. Like everyone else we paid our tex each year then have this low level service? Yes we do pay a lot in Detroit for seeing a doctor but we had a good treatment. It makes me feel like doctors here only charge my money from my tex then rush to push us go. I question their qualification of whole team. Neither skill nor service we had. I sometimes wonder will they have same terrible experice if their own kids is not feeling well
June 19th, 2015 at 3:47 pm
Sounds like you don’t know what Sick Kids is for. My son is being treated here for a heart defect, your son was being treated for a bump on his arm. Grow up. You full well know that your kid was not a priority ESPECIALLY at this hospital. Stop complaining.
March 21st, 2017 at 10:21 pm
I to have a long horrible story…. the truth is the Emergency Department is the problem. I returned to the hospital the for second time after 6 days of my son having excruciating headaches and a fever that wouldnt break. They made us stay 12 hours in a room giving him IV and Tylenol, not even a blood test….when i complained they showed me a paper that said “PROTOCOL FOR HEADACHE.” As they were following protocol my son nearly died from a brain infection all because they have to follow protocol. My son by far did not look the sickest in the Emergency Department, he was trying to be a brave 16 year old boy, no crying or screaming yet he required 4 Emergency surgeries from that day on. Parents follow their instincts to do whats best for their children and that means going to the hospital………nobody should discoursge parents from going to the hospital you never know how serious a symptom can be or become.
August 21st, 2018 at 7:28 am
My child was overdosed on morphing in 2017 by a nurse. He is healthy now but it was handled very poorly. The staff tried to cover it up . They were worried about a law suit.
Since then I have been in emerge where doctors have not even reviewed my son’s file before treating him. He has one kidney so I have to tell them his what le story because they do not look at his file.
His surgeon was very good. He was born with an imperferated anus. The specialists have been excellent.
Unfortunately there are also some very poorly trained staff.
December 4th, 2018 at 4:05 am
To Dr.Fisher,
I had a surgery for cleft palate treatment. I have a syndrome called 22Q Deletion syndrome. It used to be called Di George. I wanted to thank this Dr. He made a hugedifference in my speech. He was my second opinion. He wanted to do it for me.Didnt know if it would work. I am very happy with the outcome. I dont speak nasal anymore!This is what kind of sugeries that Sick kids are famous for. They also have a clinic there for thyroidism I was a patient with Dr Danemin not sure if I spelled his name right I hope so!
The reason why im explaining this is this an amazing hospital! The hospitals everywhere are very short staffed been to Toronto General hospital and Toronto Western!
Im not going to bore you with the details cause I had very similiar experiences in the waiting room. Shouldnt have been there myself perhaps. I needed help. Wasnt to sure about after hours care but we should all use it more.
Im feeling much better and both of the hospitals did help very much.
Giving love out ,there to all the pPersonal Suppport workers , we need more in the hospitals. Im going to try and apply to Sick Childrens.
Love. Faith