Dayton Children's Hospital — Local services in Dayton

I am currently in Dayton Childrens ICU. My daughter is fully disabled and special needs. I’ve brought her here since she was a baby. We’ve always had phenomenal experiences here, which is why I’m still shocked at the lack of urgency I’ve experienced now. My daughter gets sick easy and fast. We’ve nearly lost her twice years ago due to illness which is why they like to put Alyssa in ICU even if she doesn’t appear to need it. This time, yeah, she needed to be in ICU. Alyssa’s left lung has scar tissue and her right lung has pneumonia. She currently has Parainfluenza. It’s easy for mucus to pocket and make it hard for her to breath.

Alyssa is on bipap currently to help her breathe, last night she dropped to 84. Normal is preferably high 90’s, but she’s not the standard case. At 84 we need to get things figured out so she can breath.

I pushed the red nurse light button. I waited 2-3 mins, nobody answered. Once she dropped to 82 I had my ex-husband run into the hall and flag someone down.

Was I frustrated? Yes, but things happen. Accidents happen. I know nurses are overworked and short staffed. So I didn’t say anything but they knew I wasn’t happy.

Not even 2hrs later she drops down to 81% oxy. I hit the red nurse button again, someone did promptly answer. I told them her oxy was destating and that she fell to 81 rapidly. She told me she would call my nurse.

Ok. I work at a vet clinic as an animal nurse. If I holler that a patient is destating, it’s all hands on deck. It doesn’t matter if that’s your patient or not. Contact her nurse since that nurse knows Alyssa’s treatment, but someone get in here to help manage her.

Alyssa dropped to 79, under her eyes she was turning purple. I had my ex run back out the hallway. This time I’m fuming so I tell everybody who comes in here that I want to speak to the DON. And yes I was angry. My nurse didn’t get the page about Alyssa until she was already nearly done helping her….

After that, Alyssa’s care has been exceptional. Still, last night I asked to talk to someone, The Charge Nurse, anyone. I explained to my nurse that I know it’s not her fault. I was there when she got the page about Alyssa. I’m not mad at her. She hadn’t been getting buzzed. Maybe it’s a tech problem. Staffing. Communication. Organization. Idk but this is not ok. It the Intensive Care Unit.

I had to ask again last night about speaking to the charge nurse. The new nurse on shift said she had heard a little bit about what happened, but asked me to explain. So I did explain. She did tell me that it can take 1-2 mins for a page to go through to the nurse; which I didn’t know and I feel parents should be made aware of that. She was polite and tried to help me Understand the reasoning my child wasn’t able to be tended to promptly.

This nurse S. did get the Charge Nurse G, (sorry, I’m not trying to name drop them. Charge Nurse G. Does come in. She does tell me she would be more than happy to talk to me and listen, but if I would like to wait until 11pm the assistant of nursing and Charge Nurse K. Would be an awesome person to talk to since she’s higher up.

Charge Nurse G. Did politely explain procedures. I was unaware that when my child is destating, I can hit the red nurse button, but if the girls are charting it may be a minute before they can answer…so I can absolutely run and flag someone down or I can also go across the room to the phone and dial my nurse.

I said that was fine. That I had never been told that if I push the red nurse button that it may take a bit before someone can answer. I asked to have that written in her chart and printed out for me so I will have this reference for the next time she’s struggling to breathe.

I haven’t received any documents about the incident. And Charge Nurse K. Did not talk to me about the incident last night. I waited up until 1am. I’m not even blaming Charge Nurse K. I can’t verify that anybody even told her that I needed to talk to her.

3 people I know run dialysis clinic. They’ve been nurses for years. I contacted them to see if I was over...

Let me start with saying I am a cancer survivor of 16 years and have been coming to children's since I have been 3 years old . But today I brought my 2 month old in because she has an upper respiratory infection (which no tests or X-rays were done to make sure that is all she has) and sever reflux .... let me add that she has already had an X-ray to check for pyloric stenosis but it runs in my family and if you do your research it develops later on in female patients....She has not had any throw up episodes in at least a month after being diagnosed with reflux and being put on medicine 3 times a day , being sat up for 30 minutes after feedings and burped every half oz. but we started noticing her projectile vomiting again for about a week now. But today she had thrown up three times in a two hour span and only had 3 bottles today compared to her normal 8-10 and has not had a wet diaper in over six hours(normally fills up diapers) or BM in two days. We waited in the emergency room for two hours while we watched every single person that came in after us get called back to a room . Being concerned that my baby is potentially dehydrated from not wanting to eat and throwing up more than taken in I proceed to ask why everyone else has been called back to a room, the nurse tells me that basically everyone else was more of an emergency than my 2 month old baby and she is in a different area of the emergency room AFTER THE FACT THAT TRIAGE NURSE TOLD US THEY WERE DISCHARGING 5 PATIENTS AND MY DAUGHTER WAS 4th TO GO BACK... AND SHE WAS THE ONLY INFANT IN THE WAITING ROOM AT THE TIME.

Needless to say we left and children's will be hearing from us . I think a two month old whom was born premature and is now only 9 lbs and possibly could be dehydrated is a bit of an emergency .

And another concern of mine is that we have been in and out of children's at least 3-4 times in the last week or so and they do no testing except once to check her blood sugar and whatever else they claimed they did. And that's when we came in the first time for her throwing up and not eating much ... they said " you've already had the x ray for pylorics so we aren't worried about it" but know that babies develop in time and are not born with the condition and especially with females it develops later than males AND IT RUNS IN MY FAMILY. & the second time we came in was the concern of dry drowning after giving her a bath and her kicking off the end of her tub as I was rinsing her abdomin off and getting a mouth full of water and projectile vomiting from the bed into her rock and play & NOT ONE TEST WAS DONE OR EVEN AND X-RAY TO CHECK AND SEE IF SHE INHALED ANY WATER INTO HER LUNGS !!!! We come back a few days later because she had been having low grade fevers , sneezing , and coughing fits till she thrown up so her pediatrician said to take her in ASAP to get tested for whooping cough that is going around... we get there and they did the test and sends her home because they "think it is just an upper respiratory infection " BUT DID NO OTHER TESTS or chest X-rays . And she has been having sever throw up episodes to the point she can not breath and tenses up severely until we suction her and flip her completely over in fear of her maybe inhaling some of her throw up into her lungs and maybe getting pneumonia (rare but possible with reflux) I thought they should do some X-rays to confirm it was only upper respiratory infection . But they don't seem to do any tests to make sure of anything they diagnose.

I will NOT bring her back unless I absolutely have to . I will drive Two hours to Cincinnati EVERY single time my...

Arrived at Dayton Children’s Main Campus on 7/18/25 as a direct admit to the N.I.C.U. and we were discharged 7/21/25. My fiancé and I felt as if the nurses didn’t listen to our concerns in the beginning. They just took our baby from us as we were checking in and began to bring her upstairs to start her assessment without us being present. We had signed no consent to treat before they began getting her situated. Upon arrival to our daughter’s room, we had asked multiple times what the plan of care would be but we couldn’t get a direct answer until the following day when the doctor was in. It seemed as if only about half of the nurses we had really knew half of what they were doing. They had to squeeze our 1 week old daughter’s foot multiple times to get a blood sugar reading because their blood sugar readers wouldn’t register that they had a test strip inserted. The menu of food available to breastfeeding mothers doesn’t have many options to meet the nutrition requirements needed for the baby’s breast milk. You can’t even find a drink in the building that isn’t diet, so you have to leave your child alone in their care if you would like something other than water. The portion sizes are ridiculously small, my fiancé ordered a pizza and was served a 4 inch 3 minute microwave dollar store red baron pizza. And if you don’t want pizza, I hope you brought your faux silver spoon, cause aside from breakfast all you have is knock 5 star microwaved dishes. We had been storing mothers breast milk in the fridge provided, and in the midst of our milk being taken by the hospital to be fortified one of our breast pump bottles was taken from the fridge and never returned. We had an estimated 20-30 5 ounce bottles of breast milk that we loaded into our daughters stroller that they insisted they had to roll her out in, the discharge nurse insisted she put everything into the car, including our daughter, yet 20 plus bottles of fortified milk in an insulated bag magically disappeared. With how much the nurses urged my fiancé to donate her milk to the other mothers in the N.I.C.U. I wouldn’t put it past them to have just taken it. We both reached out asking them to do a thorough check for the milk, but it didn’t seem to be much of a...