This post is something I debated about sharing and decided at the time against but as time has past I have changed my mind in order to stop it happening to another baby who has just gone through a lip repair.
To this day I am still convinced that we chose the right doctor and through him we trusted that he chose the right hospital and I honestly believe he did. Through my miscarriages in Hong Kong I have experience in a lot of the hospitals on Hong Kong Island but I have to say checking into the Adventist Hospital was a first for me. Living in Hong Kong I had heard rumours about the hospital having a good cardiology dept and a good ER dept for kids but further than that I really had no idea (except that there would be no caffeine which was fixed by some wonderful friends!).
Ultan's nurses were, on the whole, incredible. Through Ultan's stay he had 4 nurses that stood out who cared for him. The nurse who mainly took care of Ultan happened to be Japenese who didn't speak Chinese and had limited English. I wished so much to have all of my family near by because my Brother in Law, who has craved a profession with Japanese, and his gorgeous Japenese wife would have cemented the bond between our nurse and us with their Japanese fluency. Nurse 1 (as I shall call her) was born to care with her natural tendency to care for babies. She completely respected our Son and we love her for that. You know you are in good hands when your nurse walks through the door and you want to see her.
The second nurse was by far the most confident with dealing with clefts. She has the most experience with cleft care and with her confidence I would imagine would make a good teacher. She made me feel completely at ease with her care for Ultan and I trusted her in updating the doctors as she had experience with what she was talking about. Nurse 3 was lovely, she was an extremely nice person but I had to stop her temptation of cleaning the wound when unnecessary i.e. the nostril floor is especially tender and as there are no stitches in that area. Blood clotting is relied upon as part of the healing process. Watching this process it may be tempting to clean the dried blood away but from what I have read, the nostril floor is best left a lone in the days following surgery. Turned out nurse 3 was new to Adventist and I would love to know if she had worked in Queen Mary because she reminded me of the nurse who wanted to feed Ultan with a syringe!!
Nurse 4, was on her night shift when Ultan came under her care. During Ultan's stay I didn't leave his side and at night I would sleep on a sofa bed by his cot. I would hear nurses come in to do their job checking Ultan and by the third night I didn't get out of bed everytime a nurse came in. Unfortunately I choose the wrong night to stop because when nurse 4 came in to do her check at around 4 am, she, probably without knowing, or realizing, she pulled up the bed blankets around Ultan's chin. Well, for a baby who has had a 3 hour surgery on his face and has his arms in arm restraints to stop him touching his healing wound, having a wool blanket available for him to scratch his itchy wound = time of his life. Ultan had a field day ripping his head from side to side probably trying to relieve the itchness of the healing wound that by the time I found him the bedding was filled with Ultan's fresh blood and his face was covered in blood - to the degree that I did not know if his wound was damaged. Just hours earlier I had been told about two incidents in Hong Kong where the lip had split post surgery and believe me, I was mentally incapable of having to go through this surgery with my son again.
The nurse obviously was shocked that her innocent and to be honest loving action of covering a baby and make him more cosy would end in such a bloody result. Immediately she changed the sheets and as much as she wanted to clean up Ultan, I think she knew by my eyes that it would be best if she left the room and not to return - which she did. Thankfully experienced Nurse 2 arrived a few hours later and I trusted her competence to clean Ultan safely (she didn't touch the wound, just cleaned the blood around the rest of the face) before Dr Lam arrived. Dr Lam did a complete clean and to my extreme relief confirmed all was OK and no damage was done. I also have to mention that the ward manager came in to apologise for what had happen as soon as she arrived to work. She was devastated by what had happened and was sincerely apologetic.
From reading this you can tell that there was no way Nurse 4 would have done this on purpose. It is a natural reaction to pull the blankets up on someone to make them more comfortable but in the case of patient recovering for a lip repair, it happens to be detrimental to their recovery. The wound must be protected from not only the baby's wee fingers but also from all other devices which will help baby scratch the hell out of his/her wound. This is why I have decided to share now as Mom/Dad/Carer who are taking care of baby after surgery will not allow a loving nurse do this to their lip repair baby. And for the carer, don't be surprised how instinct kicks in.
Trust me, trust your instincts!
 |
| A relieved Mommy taken a photo after Dr Lam confirms the wound is OK! |
PS Ultan is a clever wee fella and he learned that having a nurse come near him may end up with a needle stuck in him so he would react like any baby know's how and would scream if the nurses crossed the bottom of the cot. However, to my amazement, Dr Lam Lai Kun did a complete clean, which included using instruments
and Ultan had nothing but smiles. This is obviously a good sign - one does wish for their plastic surgeon to have a gentle touch!
No comments:
Post a Comment