REAL WORLD EMERGENCY MEDICINE

An ER Doc Takes His 3-Year-Old Son to the Emergency Department

Navigating the system as a doctor

My son, almost every day 😄 Photo by chaitanya pillala on Unsplash

About 25 years ago, when my son was just three, we moved to Durham, North Carolina so I could join the Emergency Medicine faculty at a famous university healthcare system there that shall remain nameless.

At the time this incident occurred I was a new faculty member and not yet well known, or even known at all, to most of the Emergency Department personnel.

Here’s how this fun one went down.

My 3-year-old son Shawn, who had been happy and healthy until about a day or so prior, awakened my wife and me with his crying. He’d gone to bed early that night with a slight fever. Not one to complain, he’d gotten some fever-reducing medicine and had fallen asleep easily and peacefully.

He was not peaceful now. In fact, he was crying, but gently.

When I went to check on him, Shawn felt blazing hot and was obviously in pain. He got another dose of a fever reducer and his temp soon returned to normal. His crying continued.

I did what a doctor dad does when his not-critically-ill child is ill. I examined him.