"Dangerous lack of care for extremely sick child"

If I had accepted the advice of the Drs at Joondalup Emergency there, my young child (under 5 yrs) could have died of sepsis from an the extremely dangerous and infectious disease - invasive Group A Strep!

My child had frightening symptoms including fever, vomiting, excruciating pain, a rash that appeared and continued growing while we were waiting, curling up from their ankles. They were unable to stand, walk or even touch their skin due to extreme pain. They sat limply in a wheelchair with barely any clothes on in the middle of winter due to fever and the pain of clothing touching their skin. They looked extremely unwell - so much so that other parents in the waiting room were concerned.

It was approximately 5 hours of waiting and having to ask for help at triage over and over as my child's symptoms worsened with stomach pain and headache. I had to ask multiple times even just to have their temperature taken. This was our second visit to ED in 30 hours.

Finally seen by 2 doctors.

We were brushed off. Told that nothing was broken which was confusing and upsetting as we were not there because of any injury, the symptoms were due to illness. No testing done at all and told it was a normal virus. 5-10 days my child would be better.  At a loss, wondering how I'm supposed to manage my child's symptoms at home, I was told panadol and nurofen which we had already done and had made no improvement. We were sent home and knowing something was very wrong, i made an appointment with our GP for the next morning.

Luckily our GP recognised the seriousness  of this situation and she sent us to Perth Children's Hospital immediately where we spent the next 2 weeks in isolation fighting this infection. Then the next 3 Months my child learning to walk again.

2 years later and they still walk with a limp but is lucky to be alive - no thanks to Joondalup health campus emergency department.

This was an extremely traumatic experience for my child and our family and each time I hear of another child being mistreated and suffering at Joondalup emergency it stirs a lot of angst and emotion, hence writing this complaint so long after the event. I feel like this is still an important story to be shared and is still something that negatively affects our family to this day.