For those of you in the Hampton Roads Area- Child Deaths

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Some of you have probably heard about the Child Deaths in Hampton Roads. This article isn’t all that sensationalized; however, many of the news stations on TV are handling this very irresponsibly. They’ve been telling people to rush their children to a hospital at the first sign of any sort of illness. There are children in there with nothing more than a runny nose. All this is doing is causing mass panic. My father is an emergency department physician at Chespeake General Hospital; he was telling me some information that the news didn’t mention. I thought that I should share this:

  1. The doctors know that this is a viral thing; other than that, there really are no other tests that they do to figure out what is wrong. Until they do know, there is really nothing that they can do. This is not the fault of the doctors; the facts simply are that no one know one knows what is causing this. However, it is being investigated.

  2. Bringing your children into the emergency room is going to cause more harm than good. People are packed into the waiting rooms so tightly that there aren’t even enough seats for them all. If there is a child in there with this illness, then all of the other children will have a high chance of catching it, too, because they are so tightly packed together. :smack:

  3. DO NOT PANIC. If you feel that there is a chance that your child might have this virus, whatever it is, try to see your regular doctor if that will make you feel better. As I said, bringing your child into the Emergency Room will do no good.

  4. Take what the news says with a grain of salt. Their business is to exaggerate things; make sure to investigate what they are saying before panicking.

I just thought I would share that with you all in hopes of preventing some of you all from mass panic, as well. Please take this into consideration before rushing your child to the nearest hospital at the first sign of a runny nose.

~ monica

2

Well, I can see why a lot of parents are panicking - according to that article, the children seemed to have nothing worse than a cold before suddenly dying. But unless a child is sick enough to need hospitalization, there really isn’t anything a doctor can do, is there? Even in the hospital all they can offer is supportive care - aren’t there very few anti-viral drugs, and all of them very hard on the system of the person taking them? At least, not something you would give to a child ‘just in case’.

My sympathies to the parents in that area - it must be frightening. And your father’s advice looks very sound, monica - thanks for sharing it.

3

It is frightening – my own children are 15 and 16, but even so… The newspaper articles I’ve seen have been, as Monica said, largely rational and balanced… but the TV coverage! It’s fueling the panic in my opinion.

Jess

4

midwesterner checking in and the Grand Rapids Press recently reported that the CDC is checking into an unusual cluster if child deaths from flu in the northern ohio and lower michigan.

No flu shots in my house and not more than one or two sniffles from my younguns this flu season, still it is worrisome!