Considering you, medically trained & the father, also discounted the babysitter's first two calls, I'd say she did a darn fine job. Yea, she could have dialed 911 before you the third time, but I'd suspect your council got in the way of her judgement. Perhaps a "something to do differently" bullet item would be not to dismiss the babysitter/nurses judgement.
This is not a personal attack by any means. But thinking about this in the third person, it is something we can all learn from.
Goatman,
I don't take it as a personal attack. I critiqued everyone else who played a part, I should be subject to the same. It's how we learn.
That said, I'm not sure how I could have done much different, in terms of the babysitter's judgement. I feel like I trusted her judgement completely about the initial fever (told her to take temp. and give motrin), about him seeming very sick (started to get him appointmtent with pediatrician), and finally about him being in distress (call 911 now!). I'm thinking about the situation if I'd been home:
1) Kid has a fever. Well, this happens all the time. I take his temperature, and if he indeed has a fever I'll give him some children's motrin. So far so good.
2) Kid seems to be getting worse. This, too, has happened before. Normally, our pediatrician does not want to see the kids until they've had a fever for three days, or they seem, "really sick." In this case, he seemed "really sick" so I tried to send him to the doctor.
3) Kid has trouble breathing / turns blue. Thanksfully, this has never happened before, but I assume I'd be on the phone calling 911 PDQ.
I'm not sure I'd have called 911 any sooner if I'd been in her shoes.
What do other parents think? Did I not recognize the situation quickly enough? Should we have gone to 911 as soon as she thought that he "didn't seem right"?
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