Nurse chose to close the door to our room and not do anything, no doctor ever came

Jalena Gunther took to Facebook to tell others about the care her daughter received at The Stollery Children’s Hospital a 150 bed children’s hospital that opened in October 2001. It is a “hospital within a hospital,” being situated within the University of Alberta Hospital and co-located with Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute in the Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Gunther said: I feel sick. The Stollery has failed my child. Emmy had open heart surgery 4 days ago. They hooked Emmys IV fluid up at 6pm last night. Emmy screamed in pain from 7pm till 4:45 am when she finally gave up and passed out. We asked for pain meds, we asked for a doctor at 8:45pm, and at 10pm we asked if the doctor was coming, we said we need something, this isn’t Emmy and isn’t ok.

The Nurse at the Stollery chose to close the door to our room and not do anything, no doctor ever came. Emmy was under close op care which requires the nurse to physically check her every 15 minutes. We were lucky if we seen the nurse 1-2 times an hour. Protocol requires IV’s to be checked every hour. Emmys was never checked. 3 different nurses came into Emmys room and all 3 missed it.

At shift change our new nurse came in to do her assessment around 8am. The nurse immediately found that’s Emmys IV went interstitial. She pulled it out immediately but the damage was severe. She is now in the OR having her hand cut open to relieve pressure, drain fluid and remove the dead skin.

Next week she will require another surgery to do a skin graft. This was 100% avoidable if the nurse did her job. Not only was protocol grossly neglected, there was zero empathy for a child crying and screaming in pain for hours. Her iv leaked into her hand for over 12 hours, causing extreme pain and severe damage. This is not ok. Since when did this become the world-class care the Stollery is known for?