BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A highly perturbed mother is blaming a female doctor at the JNF General Hospital for prescribing a drug that produced swelling of her son’s eyes, lips and face, as well as itching of the body even though his allergy was recorded on a chart that she had in her possession.
The mother, under the condition of anonymity, told SKNVibes that her 13-year-old son had taken ill on Friday (Oct. 5), suffering from lower abdominal pains, and she had taken him to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment.
“On Friday afternoon my son was crying out for pain in his lower abdomen and I decided to take him to the state-of-the-art JNF Hospital for treatment. After waiting for quite a long time, a nurse called us into the Emergency Room where she did a number of checks on my son and asked about our family history.
“I told her that my son is allergic to sulfa and she wrote that down on the chart in red and told us to have a seat and wait for the doctor. That wait was just over two hours before we could have seen a female doctor who speaks Spanish and very little English.”
The mother said the doctor tested her son’s urine and found that he had a bladder infection and claimed that it was due to him not consuming much water, which she attested to the fact.
“When she was telling me that my son has a bladder infection, I did not understand and a man had to explain what she was saying. She then wrote a prescription for Septra which he had to take twice daily and advised that he drinks lots of water. She also told me to return to the hospital with him one week after when he would have completed the medication.
“We left the hospital and went to a pharmacy to purchase to medication. I gave him one that night and on Saturday morning my daughter called me and said that my son’s skin was itching him, bumps were appearing on his hands and his eyes and lips were swollen. So, at approximately five o’clock that afternoon I took him back to the hospital and a nurse took his chart to a doctor who ordered a second test be done.
“After one hour had passed, the nurse returned and told us to wait until the doctor was ready. That was another long wait. After two hours had elapsed, we finally got to see the doctor after I forced myself and son into her room. This doctor, however, spoke English. She told the nurse to give my son an injection and she wrote another prescription that does not contain sulfa.”
The mother claimed that her son could have died, all because of a doctor, whom she assumed has a problem in speaking the English language and does not understand its written form.
“If she had understood English language there would have been no need for the man to explain what she was trying to tell me. And, also, if she had understood it, she would have seen that his allergy was written with red ink on his chart. I could have lost my son because of a language barrier.”
According to Drugs.com, “Septra is an antibiotic combination containing sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim and it works by killing sensitive bacteria. Both ingredients are antibiotics that treat different types of infection caused by bacteria”.
Drugs.com advises that one should not use Septra if one is allergic to sulfamethoxazole or trimethoprim if one is pregnant or breast-feeding, or if one has anemia (lack of red blood cells) caused by folic acid deficiency.
“Before using Septra, tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver disease a folic acid deficiency, asthma or severe allergies, AIDS, a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD deficiency), or if you are malnourished,” Drugs.com further advises.
