A little broken leg

For anyone wondering why so long since my last post, this ..........
is the answer! Two weeks ago to the day, my darling 3 year old
broke her leg. Without going into gory details we spent the next

week in the local public hospital getting it fixed (also complicated

with a spot of pneumonia thrown in for good measure). Anyway

five days later, the registrar advised us that he had reviewed

her post operative x-rays and was happy for her to go home

(despite her ongoing pain which we were told was just 3 yo anxiety)

Now Im no brain surgeon (or bone surgeon for that matter) but I ask you does this look like the a well healing bone to you? I thought not either, so after we were discharged, we dashed off to the local GP (who, during the consultation thought I was showing him the pre-operative x-rays!). The GP kindly (and quickly) set us up an appointment with a private paediatric specialist (thank god for private health insurance) and back to ( a private) hospital we went for my poor little one to undergo a 2nd anaesthetic and operation. She is now home and feeling much better. She will be in a hip spica cast for 4- 6 weeks but at least is pain free.

Now I should make it clear that my beef is not that the bone was not fixed properly in the first place (apparantly these breaks can be a little fiddly to get right), but the fact that we were discharged home on the pretense that the post-op x-rays were "fine". The same x-ray elicited a "we need to get her back to theatre asap" response from the specialist. I'm saddened to think that this is the standard of care that one can expect from our public hospital system in the 21st century.

Thanks for listening. I rarely get up on my soap box but couldnt help myself for this one.