CHOC Hospital - Orange — Local services in Orange

On March 12, 2019 my 10 week old who is now 15 Weeks was admitted to CHOC Children’s Hospital of Orange County. He has been here for 35 days and is not getting better. Since day 1 when he was transferred via helicopter; we always felt that the CHOC children’s ambulance and transport team had collapsed our sons airway and when he was admitted there after 8 failed intubation attempts; (because they didn’t have the correct intubation equipment for an infant my sons size) he hasn’t been able to leave. Every since day 1 the doctors in the PICU team have been trying to get us to agree to a Tracheostomy.

Our child was breathing fine; on his own without the assistance of a machine.

Now we fear he can’t get off the machine and we have demanded a transfer but because some of the medical records are incorrect; due to doctors falsifying information (such as saying that they have watched videos with us (the parents) on Tracheostomy’s and that we are okay with it.) We are NOT okay with it and have been declining since day 1 and/day 8 when they brought it to our attention because that is not the treatment our child needs.

He has a floppy epiglottis which is Laryngomalacia and there is a surgery to fix it. Maybe they can not perform it here or don’t feel comfortable but instead of letting us know they continuously push us to Trach our child without a thorough explanation of why. When asked they state that he doesn’t actually need it for breathing at this point but it may help him gain weight and leave the hospital.

We feel our 15 week old son (who the doctors kept referring in their medical records as a female; stating they had examined a female; in which our child only has male parts) is not safe at the CHOC Picu and fear very much for his safety.

They have been letting him desaturate down to 15, 12, and 6 percent oxygen levels. This can cause damage to the brain and internal organs and means that he is not getting oxygen even though he is there on the Oxygen machine and ventilator which does not us feel our child is safe.

They have also given him medications to keep his heart rate up such as Abuterol in which the respiratory nurse stated he didn’t need and also Robinal which was making his heart rate go into the 200-220s after multiple request from us as the parents to stop these unnecessary medicines that were not needed.

I can’t call the police or anyone to help us because we are supposed to be in good hands. We are stuck here and an ambulance to transfer him; if our insurance does not help is between $1200-$1800.00; depending on where he transfers too as we already live 2 hours away from this hospital and drive a 5 hour round trip everyday to see our boy but we don’t know how much longer he has because we feel if he stays here; he is not safe. His life and safety is at risk and we may be too late to get to him.

After speaking with Patients Advocate to mediate and maybe help us explain in a better way to the doctors; so that they can help us; things took a turn for the worst. The attending/head doctor in charge; Dr. L (for short) has retaliated against us as we felt he would probably do. I asked him to call Loma Linda or a different hospital so we could transfer as it is a physician to physician transfer only. A parent can not just up and take their child who is intubated and an inpatient to another hospital. It is not that easy... well Dr. L recommended to the other hospital that we Trach and Gtube our child. Therefore we are unable to get an unbiased opinion from the neighboring hospital as we feel the doctors are in-cahoots based off of his notations so that we are not transferred; even though Loma Linda had just approved us a week before; they Have now changed their minds just off of these notations and or verbal communications which we feel is a retaliation because we have had to voice opinion and recommendations for our helpless child so much.

We haven’t been able to hear or hold our baby in weeks. All we can do is look from the side of the...

i don't even know where to begin. if i could give choc 0 stars i would. the hospitalists were disrespectful, incompetent, and careless. they ignored symptoms until they became life threatening. they prescribed meds that she was allergic to. they left a "sitter" in her room for no documented reason other than "at risk" for mental illness - despite multiple psych evaluations saying she was not a danger to herself or others. the sitters were frequently men, especially at night, and my teenage daughter was unable to sleep feeling sick and vulnerable with a grown man watching from the foot of her bed. she was not allowed to close the bathroom door or use the shower curtain when bathing. she caught a serious infection while inpatient and did not receive aggressive treatment until she was in full blown septic shock and organ failure. they took so long to address damage from the infection that she went almost a week without proper hydration, nutrition, or medication - all of which caused long term complications that we are still dealing with months later. the hospitalists did not even round on her every day and failed to own up to their mistakes. the nurses always seemed concerned but were too afraid to stand up to the docs - as if their jobs were at risks by questioning their judgement - even the residents and med students! i asked one of the attendings if she would treat her own daughter this way and she replied that it didn't matter because a mother would never be allowed to treat her own child. her chart is filled with false information - including consults from out of state doctors and facilities we have NEVER been to. while sorting through records recently i found the reports for a FATAL genetic condition.... apparently she was tested for it inpatient and they did not tell us. i have no idea if we found out in time to prevent it from limiting her lifespan. it has been months since the admission and she is still not recovered from the damage they inflicted. we literally had to pack up and MOVE to be away from choc and their emergency room, knowing that my daughter has a chronic illness that will need consistent medical care. we did not want to take the chance of an ambulance taking her there one day and putting her life in danger again. even now that we've established care at a new hospital with new doctors, my pharmacy received a call from choc trying to override the orders for her essential medications. she hasn't been there in MONTHS and they are going out of their way to take away her medical care. i cannot think of a reasoning for this that doesn't make them out to be pure evil. we did not agree to arbitration at the beginning of this admission and i think that is why we had such trouble. they never wanted to own up to mistakes and they wanted to be able to argue that she was "not of sound mind" in case we sued, which we are not bc she does not want to spend the rest of her life reliving this trauma in some court room. she still has nightmares about that horrible admission... i truly believe she would have died under their care if we hadn't gotten her out when we did - and i'm sure tons of families in our position have lost their children. absolutely terrible hospital - please avoid at all cost for the good of your children...

My son broke his leg on a Thursday evening and was taken to queen of the valley in west covina via ambulance. We arrived at the ER at 9pm where they did x-rays, they also told us he would have a room in pediatrics in a couple hours and ortho doc would be in first thing in the morning to see if he needed surgery. I am no doctor but by looking at the x-rays I knew he would need surgery to repair the broken tibia. 2 a.m. friday they came in to the e.r. area we were in and said we wouldn't be getting a room the afternoon since the peds dept was full. After a quick trip to the restroom I saw sleeping patients on gurneys lining the hallways and decided to call my health insurance provider. The insurance stated an ambulance would only be covered if the current doctor put in the request for a transfer do to inability to provide Healthcare for him. I asked the doc which he right away declined, I asked again at 730 a.m. when the ortho was still nowhere to be found and failed to call in after being paged. During shift change no nurse came to introduce themselves to me as my childs attending nurse, i just was nurses pass in front of us back and forth. Finally after an hour and a half a nurse comes and introduces her self, she must have passed us by at least 15 times. Charge nurse told me ortho shows up after their office hours usually after 1p.m. at this point I knew I had to do something. I decided to take my son to CHOC myself and signed the AMA forms. As I was signing the AMA forms the nurse whispered to me " you are doing the right thing, I would do exactly the same if my child was here awaiting care." I was really upset that they're were not honest with me since we first arrived to the ER, I would've took my soon to CHOC in the middle of the night when there was no traffic. I got the x-rays on a disk, carried my son to my suv and drove CHOC 35 mins away. Once I arrived to CHOCS ER they immediately gave me a wheelchair to wheel him In and abt an hour later (10:30a.m.) he had a room in the ER. It only took about 30 mins for the ortho doc to come in and tell us what I already knew, surgery was needed to repair the leg and was trying to fit us in that same day at 9 p.m. The rest of the day hospital staff stopped by to introduce themselves as the caregivers for my son and ask if we needed anything, water, coffee, food etc. At 8:30pm the ortho doc sent in a nurse to alert us my son had 30 mins to eat and drink because he would be having surgery at 5a.m. Saturday morning therefore had to fast starting at 9p.m. I ran down to the cafeteria and upon my return my son was already eating a meal the doc himself brought to his room to ensure he ate a meal before 9p.m. We were shortly transferred to a room that would be his during the rest of his stay at CHOC, staff continued their awesome care throughout the night, after surgery and throughout the day until discharge. I must say that CHOC has the best services and staff I have ever experienced and I am sooooo glad I transferred my son there. It's been about 5 days now, they have called 3 times to check on my son's condition and to make sure all is well with his leg. Thanks a million to all the amazing staff at CHOC, I will never allow any of my kids to be taken anywhere else if a hospital is...