Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU Children’s Pavilion & Children’s Tower — Local services in Richmond

It’s been a few months & I still can’t stop thinking about it. It will even keep me up at night sometimes, I wish I could take this experience away from him. My son was 3 at the time of this visit. I had a friend speak highly of this hospital, I’ve brought him on one other occasion & the nurses were wonderful with him. When my son got sick again, I knew I wanted to bring him back here… I came in after my son had some sort of cold that didn’t go away after 3 weeks. The wait at the hospital was long which I don’t mind, I understand! & the nurses who took his X-rays were great & sweet! I sure wish I knew their names to praise their manners… & I wish I knew the name of the nurse that performed the horrendous COVID test on my son…. I was a bit hesitant at first, but I had my own Covid test done when he was born & it wasn’t bad. I thought surely she wouldn’t shove that whole stick in his tiny little nose…. But that’s exactly what this monster did. I asked her if that was necessary & she said it used to be done worse… I noticed a little bit of spotting on the q tip and she insisted it could be the cold medicine she tried to FORCE him to take ( instead of simply trying one time & then offering me to try )… not even moments later but as soon as she left the room his nostril was profusely bleeding…. His shirt had trails of blood, the sleeve of my jacket had trails of blood, his neck had trails of bled. At the moment of the test, I heard him stop breathing for a moment and his body froze like he was in shock, & as soon as she pulled it out my 3 year old son clung on me like he was a little baby again…. My son is 4 now & recently received his 4 shots for school and I have yet to see him react the way he did this night…. WHY ARE YOU WORKING WITH CHILDREN IF YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO WORK WITH THEM OR DONT LIKE THEM… I work for a pediatric dentistry & the whole point is to make the experience as least traumatizing as possible. You don’t ever want to use force & you are careful and gentle with the words you use and what you do…. She seemed like she didn’t even want to be there & she didn’t even try. Ever since this experience my son is scared to be in any doctor setting, and I understand. I cringe at the memory of what I saw and I feel I failed as a mother to protect him…. It was a horrible mistake I wish I could go back in time and say no… I wish I knew what I knew now, which is that I could’ve performed the test instead of that vile woman. I wish I trusted my gut… I wish he knew I had no part in it I thought I was doing what was best for him. I wish I knew this woman’s name, although the health system would never do anything about it. At the very least this woman deserves to be written up for the way she man handled my son. On top of that, the Doctor we had was of no helo. He left us with no answers & couldn’t even admit he just simply didn’t know. He came in & told me to check mychart for the results & we would be discharged with cold medicine. We left the hospital at 5 AM after arriving the night before. I WILL NEVER BRING HIM BACK HERE AND I HAVENT. I took my son to Bon Secours children’s hospital at st Mary’s, the nurses were lovely and I am more cautious. I recommend going...

Honestly if I could give 0 stars I would. We took my 3 month old to chippenham er after she fell 3 inches out of her bath chair while my husband was watching her. It was an awful accident that my husband felt HORRIBLE about, she had no symptoms of anything being wrong and she was smiling and happy. She had a ct that showed a minor brain bleed and we were transferred to VCU. After we arrived to VCU we were informed that the bleed was so minor that she would need no treatment for it but they wanted to keep her overnight for observation. We agreed. That night my 3 month old was denied any milk or formula for 13 hours, the nurses tried flushing a blown IV 6 times while my baby screaming in pain, and she had no medical need to be there. They had her hooked to fluids so she wouldn’t dehydrate but was refused to eat for no known reason. The next day we were expecting to be discharged but were told we couldn’t be yet. At this point me, my husband, and baby all needed a change of clothes, so my husband went home to get those. As soon as my husband left a team of 6 social workers and CPS came in to interrogate me about my child’s accident. Literally treated me like a criminal. I was then informed my 3 month old would be sent down to get a full body X-ray (20 X-rays) to look for signs of abuse. Which came back negative OF COURSE. We had to stay at this hospital for 3 days because social workers would not allow us to leave. My child’s injury was punishment enough and absolute hell to go through, but then being treated like a criminal despite voluntarily bringing your child in to be seen was absolutely uncalled for. None of my children have ever been injured, they’ve been to every routine drs visit, they are healthy and VERY loved. We don’t even have as much as a speeding ticket on our record (yes they supoened everything to look into) And now I received a 14,000$ bill for our hospital stay we were not allowed to leave from. When my child received FLUIDS(because she was denied formula) that’s it. And our itemized bills shows charges for infant drug tests, and a bunch of NONSENSE crazy tests that were so uncalled for.

Don’t go here unless you want to be treated like a criminal, and be in thousands of dollars of medical debt. It’s absolutely heartbreaking that this happened when we were just trying to receive care...

Warning I am a Social Worker. Do Not and I mean Do Not suggest bringing your child here for ER care. If it weren't for me knowing my rights as a legal guardian and a parent, these ppl would have taken full advantage of my daughter's rights. VCU Police, the physicians, the Clinical Administrator all threatened to take 72 hrs custody of my child because I refused treatment for my child and requested that my daughter be transported to CJW MEDICAL for better treatment and care from the staff. Yet instead, they refused and illegally filed what's called an Medical TDO without a proper signature from a judge or a magistrate. Once I told them that the document was invalid and this is not what a Medical TDO used for, they had patient advocates and supervisors come to my room to assure that they weren't going to be sued. This place is a nightmare. They want you to believe that whatever they say to you is legal and the truth when in fact what their doing is illegally holding patients hostage. If you have custody of your child, no one can just take custody without your consent or unless a patient is being held for mental health purposes and is incompetent to make decisions on their own, or if the person is a harm to themselves and others, this is what a Medical TDO is used for. I pulled out the Rights and Responsibility form with their name and logo on it because policy is policy, but then they choose to still go against their own policy??? No need to call an actual City of Richmond Police to override or mediate what VCU Police exercises because when you call 911 they will tell you that VCU Police is within City of Richmonds jurisdiction. I just hung up. Ridiculously felt held against my will as a parent and as my daughter's legal guardian. Please, please, please always know your rights and READ READ RESD and Save all paperwork they hand to you. I've had to report those VCU cops, the compliance officer, the Clinical Administrator and the physicians as well. They thought I was just a regular parent on Medicaid, but I've had to submit a complaint to DMAS as well. I told them call CPS because CPS , I work for them too lol. Do not let people of any medical authority or some sort of position of power to feed you lies about the law and what you could do...