Phichittra Oyama yesterday told reporters that she took her 2-year-old daughter to Vachira Phuket Hospital at about 7:20pm on Monday (Jan 24).
A doctor was available to check her daughter at 8pm, but the doctor said she was unable to locate the button.
“The doctor said there is no button in the nose and asked my child where she hurt, and my child said on the right side. The doctor pressed on the right side and my child said it hurt. The doctor pressed on the left side, and my child said it hurt, but the doctor said that my girl didn’t have a button in her nose,” Ms Phichittra explained.
The doctor told Ms Phichittra to bring her daughter back the next day if the pain persisted. The doctor dismissed Ms Phichittra’s fears if anything happened to her daughter during the night, saying the girl’s symptoms were not severe.
The doctor agreed to have an x-ray taken in case the button had become lodged elsewhere, but the male nurse who had taken her daughter for the x-ray said they were unable to find it.
The male nurse also dismissed Ms Phichittra’s concerns that the button may have moved to her daughter’s windpipe or stomach, saying that in that case the button was most likely in her daughter’s stomach and hence not a serious medical concern.
Before leaving, Ms Phichittra had the hospital issue a medical certificate confirming they had not found a button in her daughter’s nose.
However, after returning home Ms Phichittra’s nanny used a household torch to look in the girl’s nose, and saw the button still lodged in there, Ms Phichittra said.
“It was just a torch in the house,” she said.
Ms Phichittra took her daughter to Mission Hospital Phuket, a private hospital in Rassada, north of Phuket Town, where she waited less than 20 minutes and a doctor quickly confirmed the button was indeed still in her daughter’s nose.
“The doctor used a normal torch as well. What x-ray machine was the public hospital using? A doctor at Mission Hospital is a normal doctor, not a specialist,” Ms Phichittra said.
Ms Phichittra asked for the doctor to return the button to her and issue a medical certificate confirming that he had found, and removed, it. She then returned to Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket Town.
“I went to the front of the emergency room and asked to see a doctor who issued the certificate because I went to Mission Hospital and got the button out,” she said.
The doctor who had examined her daughter didn’t come out, but two nurses came out saying they were the heads of duty shift, Ms Phichittra said.
She explained the situation to the nurses and presented the certificate issued by Mission Hospital.
“The nurses said that if I am not okay, I can write a complaint, but writing a complaint here does not mean that the hospital is not good. Only the doctor made a mistake,” Ms Phichittra said.
“I am a normal person, and I have to believe what doctors say. But if I didn’t go back and check my child’s nose again, it could have been dangerous since it was stuck in the nose for a long time,” she added.
“I just want to remind people that sometimes we have to take steps to look after our children regardless of what other people say,” Ms Phichittra said.
JohnC | 28 January 2022 - 08:44:16