East Tennessee Children's Hospital — Local services in Knoxville

This review is directed towards the GI department (Dr. Ammar).

Back towards the beginning of the year, our son (still 3 years old at the time) was having blood (very, very little) in his stool. After visiting our pediatrician, they set us up to go to Children's for a consultation with a specialists (Dr. Ammar).

After a rather lengthy wait in the patient room (not the waiting room), Dr. Ammar entered, asked a few questions and then quickly jumped to the suggestion that our son probably had polyps. What was intended to be a consultation, turned into my son having multiple vials of blood taken for testing. At no point, was a time frame mentioned on when we should expect to hear back on the results. After 3 days, I called Dr. Ammar's office and requested to know when we could expect results. I was informed that the results would be discussed during my sons follow up visit (just over 3 weeks away). Told the nurse that was unacceptable seeing as we were scared into the possibility that not only our son could have polyps, but that they could potentially be cancerous. Before I was able to get them to share the results with me, I was told they don't give results over the phone. Another ridiculous "policy" seeing as it's important results regarding OUR son.

Test results - benign

3 weeks went by (to which our son had NO MORE stools with blood present) and during the follow up, Dr Ammar mentions the next "best" thing to do to make sure there aren't polyps was to do a colonoscopy. Still a little shocked that this "could" be happening to our little guy, we agree to set up a date for the procedure. As we're still in the patient room processing what could be going on with our son, Dr. Ammar peeked his head in the room and quickly adds that an endoscopy is also highly recommended to make sure everything is clear. We agree (again, still trying to process everything) and leave the hospital knowing in one week, our son would be having two evasive procedures done to his tiny body.

Over the next couple days, we learned more and more just how awful of a day our son was going to have the day prior to the procedures. Our son (3 years old and around 30lbs) was going to have to not only take two different medicines to help clear out his digestive system, but would also have to take 17 doses of a laxative. 17!!!!?

Now we started getting more than a little scared because not only is general anesthesia potentially harmful for toddlers (very few cases of death), but odds of his body doing well without any food in his system at all was very unlikely given his age and size.

We also came across a multitude of medical journals and case studies that indicated that a colonoscopy at his age would actually increase his chances of developing polyps (the very thing he wanted to look for). On top of that, we found out that in cases where toddlers were found to have polyps, 90+% of them were taken care of by the toddlers own body. That's right, polyps more than likely tend to auto amputate due to the amazing way toddlers bodies handle foreign objects during developmental growth.

All this info, coupled with the greater fact that blood had not been present for almost a full month, gave us a great settling peace with cancelling our sons next appointment.

DOUBLE CHECK YOUR DOCTOR'S SUGGESTED COURSE OF ACTION HERE. Dr. Ammar did not share ANY of info I mentioned with us at all. Instead, he went right to the option that would line his pocket book.

We will NEVER take our kids here again and will go to Nashville solely based on the facts...

My 5year old daughter has the flu, but started having difficulty breathing and sounded like she had croup, so I took her to a local urgent care to see if she needed a breathing treatment and/or steroids & while waiting there her fever spiked to 105, so they sent us to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. They said they would call ahead & let them know the situation. We got to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital at approximately 7pm & they seemed unconcerned that her temperature was 105 & didn’t even check her temperature when we got there. Then, we had to wait hours to even go back for triage. While in triage they gave her zofran because she was vomiting mucus, but the vomiting wasn’t even my concern — we originally went in for difficulty breathing and then she had 105 temperature. We were sent back to the waiting room, where we waited until approximately 2am to finally be called back to a room. The doctor then comes in and says the urgent care said they gave her a breathing treatment already & I immediately corrected her & said no the urgent care did nothing but give her Tylenol & ice packs & send us here to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. She then looks at my mom, who was with us, like I was lying. My mom said exactly what I said. Then she asks if maybe we left the room and they did a breathing treatment while we were out of the room. I said no absolutely not I wouldn’t leave my 5 year old with a 105 temperature alone, especially not long enough for a breathing treatment. So she proceeds to tell me they would give my daughter a steroid, IV fluids, more zofran, & a chest X-ray. She also said my daughter would need to pee before we could leave since it had been almost 24 hours since she last peed. We finally get discharged around 5:30am & I realize they never did the steroid they said they were going to give her. I asked about it & never really got a clear answer. I had been awake over 24 hours at this point & we were just ready to go home, so we left. I called the local urgent care today that we went to last night & asked why they told the ER they gave her a breathing treatment when they never did & she said they tried calling the ER twice & never got an answer, so they didn’t actually speak to anyone or send anything. I’m not sure who is lying, but I do not appreciate being lied to by anyone. I tried contacting the “patient experience person” that they respond to these reviews & tell people to call, but I got no answer & had to leave a voicemail. Hopefully this discrepancy can...

My Daughter who’s been sick with bp drops, hr rising, blurry vision, dizziness, unable to eat, & headaches for almost 3 months, blacked out Saturday night and I brought her into the ER. We were there for hrs before being called back and waited another hr before we saw a nurse. When we finally saw the dr she was nice and thorough, and decided to admit my daughter. After over 10 hrs in the ER, we finally went to a room on the second floor. That experience was completely different. My Daughter had a team of drs that consisted of a cardiologist, gi, eye dr, & pediatrician, and dietician. They all coordinated their efforts together to come up with a plan. My Daughter was previously scheduled to see a cardiologist in mid May, but she got to see one at this stay. She was scheduled for an upper/lower gi in late April. They did that here. As well as eye tests, a very thorough MRI, & echocardiogram. Dr. Patel, the peds dr was EXTREMELY kind & thorough and did not stop fighting for my daughter until he had all the answers, and was sure of her diagnosis. Dr. Cox with GI was wonderful. Dr. Bremmer with cardio was very nice, & detailed in explaining my daughter has POTS, and what treatment route she thought was best, & giving us a prognosis & helping educate us further on this illness. All of the drs we saw did not rush and took their time answering our questions, & had impeccable bedside manners. Dr. Patel is THE BEST peds dr we have EVER seen. My daughter’s former peds refused us a cardio referral until I had to go Mama Bear on her and explain that what my child is going thru is NOT normal, bc she said there was nothing wrong with my daughter & refused to do anything further to help her. Since then- she’s been diagnosed with gastroparesis, by Dr. Al-Tawil, and in a 3 day span at ETCH, she’s been diagnosed with POTS, & possible h.pylori. I have never seen such a competent team of drs as those we have had here. Bc of them, my daughter can finally begin to get better, bc we know what her diagnosis is, we can treat it properly. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Dr. Patel, Dr. Bremmer, Dr. Cox, & Dr. Shmitt. And thank you to all the 2nd floor nurses!!! You all saved my Daughter months of suffering while waiting to see...