A MUM has claimed she spent 12 hours waiting in A&E after her son had multiple seizures and his lips turned blue.
Milla Sokolova said she experienced the “scariest moment of her life” after attending Barnet Hospital in North London with her non-verbal autistic son, Noar, on Sunday.
The six-year-old had developed a fever and started having seizures on the floor at home which left his eyes rolling to the back of his head and his lips turning blue.
Milla, 44, called an ambulance where medics carried out an assessment on the youngster and advised that he attend the paediatric emergency department at the hospital.
After getting there, coffee shop manager Milla claims they had to wait half a day in A&E before Noar was seen by a doctor.
The frantic mum said she begged staff to see her son after waiting more than seven hours.
Doctors finally attended to Noar at around 5am in the morning of Monday and told Milla to give her son Calpol and Nurofen.
Noar went to see his own GP yesterday and was given antibiotics to help control his seizures.
Speaking today, Milla said: “Last Friday night, my six year-old autistic son started to feel unwell. Coughing was on and off for a few weeks, but on Friday night he got a high fever and it was going up and down like a rollercoaster.
“On Saturday night, his fever got to 41, but after Calpol and a bit later, Nurofen it went down. I assumed that he had picked up the virus from his sister, who had been already on a course of antibiotics since Wednesday.
“On Sunday afternoon, after 3pm, my son had seizures caused by high fever, as it was the first one – it was the scariest experience of my life.
“When your child is not responding to his name, rolling his eyes, his lips are starting to turn bluish and he shakes in convulsions, you feel helpless.
“A thousand horrible thoughts are going through your mind.
“As my son is not very verbal and he could not tell me what was happening to him or if he was in any pain. His sister got very scared from what had been happening to her brother and was yelling out his name so loud that 999 staff could hear her.
“I must say that 999 responses were excellent, they were calming me down as I could not believe that it was happening and the ambulance arrived very promptly with a fantastic doctor who was very polite and patient.
“She was very understanding about my son’s sensory needs. Few minutes later, another ambulance arrived with two more female doctors who also were amazing and finished the assessment of my child and brought us to Barnet Hospital, insisting that they advise us to go to A&E and to check everything.
“I had packed water, tissues, his favourite snacks, etc. in case we had to stay for a long time – judging by stories from news and media, but I had no idea that being brought by ambulance before 4pm [meant] we would be at home before 5am.”
She continued: “Other kids who came after us were seen and gone home. It was like they were leaving us a complicated case for later.
“There was another waiting room for the urgent care department, which was completely different, as there were only a few people waiting and huge clean toilets were in there with drinks jars on offer – we had stayed there only for four hours, the main waiting [time] was the horror waiting room for triage.
“The nurse only checked his temperature and blood pressure after I begged them to check on him as, by that point, it had been over seven hours of waiting and he was refusing to drink or eat anything. No antibiotics, I was told after 12 hours of waiting to give Calpol and Nurofen and call 999 if he feels worse again.
“I was told that if he doesn’t vomit he probably doesn’t need it and only call 999 if he gets worse.”
Milla took to social media on Tuesday to share her experience about her long waiting time at the hospital.
She said: “Barnet Hospital was enormous disappointment yesterday.
“After being brought by amazing and prompt ambulance [sic], my six years old autistic son had over 40 fever with seizures (and myself with horrible flu with 39.4 temperature) had waited over 12 hours to be seen by doctor.
“Try to avoid A&E, Barnet Hospital in particular, I know – I will. Stay safe and take great care.”
Social media users left comments with many expressing their concerns while others praised NHS staff for working under difficult conditions.
One said: “It’s so sad the NHS has come to this. Hate [the] thought of going to A&E now, it’s frightening.”
Another wrote: “I am so sad that people have to wait so long. I get that it’s totally frustrating too.
“I can only praise all the staff on a visit I had to make two weeks ago. I had a particularly nasty fall and knew I’d broken my wrist, along with really horrible bruising. I spent five hours in A&E.
“During that time the staff were nothing but lovely and caring. Not sure I would be so nice having people shout at me as they have had to wait to be seen.
“Well done Barnet, for working under such awful conditions.”
A third commented: “Five hours for me on Sunday. Only two GPs on duty looking after three hospitals, all because of a lack of staff – we need more people working in healthcare.”
A fourth added: “All hospitals have waits like this.”
