A BC mother is sharing her story after her neurodiverse child’s dangerous infection was missed despite multiple visits to two hospitals.
Margo Levae’s son, Wyatt, was just 7 1/2 years old when he noticed that he was starting to wake up during the night, although he had previously been a good sleeper.
Wyatt has autism and complex developmental delays, and has a different way of communicating than most children.
“He screams when he’s happy. He screams when he’s sad and he screams when he’s in pain,” Levae said.
“All those screams sound different to me. He has words, but he also uses a lot of nonverbal communication.”
But in December 2022, Wyatt was suffering like nothing his mother had ever seen.
But it took two trips to the hospital, four hospital visits and two X-rays in a month to save Wyatt from what turned out to be a severe lung infection.
“That was probably my worst fear, the worst fear I’ve ever felt,” Reeve said.
The family initially went to the emergency room at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster on Dec. 18, 2022, but doctors there sent the family home for observation.
After two days, Wyatt showed no signs of improvement.
“It was very urgent,” Reeve said. “When he just had a cold, or, you know, the flu, and I had never seen him before, he would cry like he was in pain, He was yelling. He would never do that, even with COVID-19.“
This time, the family went to BC Children’s Hospital.
Reeve said the family was concerned that Wyatt had ingested a foreign object because he was pointing to his right side and yelling, “Oh!”
She said she thought the problem was with his abdomen and digestive system.
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“We had no idea it was your right lung,” she said. “And so were the doctors.”
Doctors ordered an X-ray of Wyatt’s abdomen to check for anything there. However, the bottom of Wyatt’s lungs were visible, and doctors saw no signs of infection at the time.
They sent the family home saying Wyatt appeared to be suffering from constipation.
On January 6, 2023, the family returned to BC Children’s Hospital after Wyatt developed a fever.
But doctors told him that although Wyatt had a slight fever, they didn’t want to link it to any previous health issues and sent him home, saying he was starting to catch a cold.
“I think you’re questioning yourself because I have so much respect for all practitioners who work in the health care system,” Reeve said.
“And I know they have a great education…but I also know that no other cold has ever started like this.”
When they returned home, Wyatt’s condition began to deteriorate. Reeve said he didn’t want to move much, didn’t want to go to his favorite pool, and his nose started to bleed. It was a symptom he had never experienced before.
“In the end, what led us to bring him in was he was coughing up what looked like a blood clot,” Reeve said.
On January 17, the family returned to BC Children’s Hospital.
Wyatt underwent another x-ray, but it wasn’t until he was seen by a pulmonologist that it was discovered that Wyatt had a severe lung infection.
“I would venture to say that I actually felt comforted in that moment,” Reeve said. “You mean I wasn’t crazy?”
The infection grew until it punctured Wyatt’s lung, causing edema and allowing the infection to leak into his body.
Reeve said Wyatt may be experiencing intense pain, but he doesn’t express it in the same way as other children.
Therefore, not assessing the child’s condition is a serious oversight.
Wyatt has a high pain tolerance and may not show the same signs as other children.
“You look back and wonder what more you could have done,” Reeve said.
If something is overlooked or a mistake is made, patients and their families are often referred to the state’s patient care quality officer for a thorough investigation.
Mr Reeve said he had done so, but the response was that there was no mention of the lung infection being missed on the initial X-rays.
“It’s like if you walk past it so many times, you eventually get tired and walk away,” she added.
“We can confirm that a review of this matter was conducted last year and concluded that our clinicians followed appropriate clinical processes to arrive at the correct diagnosis,” BC Children’s Hospital said in a statement to Global News. Ta.
The hospital said the test results had been communicated to his family.
However, the state’s patient care quality officer’s report said it does not appear that standard pain assessments were met or recorded using clinically validated pain assessment tools. I apologized for that.
Reeve filed a complaint with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. and the Human Rights Tribunal.
“It’s incredibly difficult,” she said.
“I think it’s unfair. That’s what hurts the most. It’s clear to me that his disability factored into that, contributed to it, amplified it. That’s part of the problem. And for me, I think that’s the hardest thing to do because you can see the vulnerability.”
