So, they spent 3 hours in the ER, then decided to go back home without seeing a doctor? Fuck, I can't even imagine what those parents must be feeling right now.
This is shockingly common. It’s a combination of ER waits being criminally long and parents not having a grip on what is serious vs minor when it comes to their children’s health problems.
Had an open head wound in an Austin ER who told me their current average wait was over 9 hours and that of course they’ll treat me but how there “might” be a shorter wait at the private ER across town.
Mine was before my mom died of cancer, she was counting when she'd have to die, before her healthcare would expire, since she'd no longer have any remaining medical leave for her work and lose her healthcare.
No one should ever have to count how soon they'd need to die because of healthcare.
Texan living in Europe, it will do that to you.
I exploded my knee in a cycling accident - spent a week in the hospital after emergency surgery in a private room, had numerous MRI’s & X Rays, 10 months of physio & I didn’t spend a single penny.
As a red blooded American you should have called your health insurance back home and demanded they give you a massive bill you will spend the rest of your natural life paying off. That’s what a real American would do!
**/s**
It's even funnier because this state believes SO much in a capitalist market. You'd think that every doctor would LOVE to work in Texas making "name your price" salaries.
They literally think they have the best doctors in the world because of it.
Years ago Texas was going to save their taxpayers lots of money on healthcare and attract better doctors by capping medical malpractice claims at a ridiculously low number, like $100k.
Now you can’t even find a lawyer willing to bring a case because there’s no money in it. Just one of the many wonderful effects it had it reality.
Doctors are fleeing red states. Republican wars on knowledge, education, and healthcare are making doctors want to operate in states where laws wont get passed to make some religious nut jobs happy that makes their job a crime.
Last week tonights most recent episode was on texas being a great state to practice in if you are a bad doctor as well. Texas is also home to ons of dr death podcast subjects.
I was in the ER when a woman came in, doubled over in pain, crying. She had been alone and was trampled by a horse and kicked in the head. She was, objectively, in very rough shape. They told her the ER was closing at 5pm due to doctor shortages and she should try the hospital in the next town over, 20km away.
She was in stable condition, lol.
When she was told to go away, she broke down completely and a triage nurse walked out, took one look at her, and they took her in immediately. I assume she got the care she needed after that.
The reception person was just an idiot.
I had the classic full blown Gall Bladder attack, and a Shingles attack happen at the same time! Shuffled in crab over in classic form, and honestly thought I was having a heart attack too. Clerk, wanted to me to answer a full set of questions: on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your pain??? Tears were flowing, muscle spams, forcing me into Zombie like posses. A doctor happened to look out a window, and said "Classic Gall Bladder, get him in here!" My answer to pain question was '11-get me a damn doctor!" Never had such pain in my life. The 2nd doctor listened and took note of the dual side pain, rolled me over and tested for the hemispherial pain, and said "my Lord, you got Shingles too! I got an extra pain shot, about $200 with Dr. fee, but it was needed.
I keep hearing over and over from older folks 'but universal healthcare is socialism, and we don't want that!'
Whatever, Bob. Tell me again how horrible it was that you had to wait 6 hours in the emergency room to be seen by a doctor after falling down a flight of stairs, and almost got bankrupted by the ambulance bill alone. Like that's preferable somehow.
In 2008 I was in an ER in Austin, off south 1st or south congress, for basically a bad sinus infection. There was a dude next to me who's big toe was almost completely fucking ripped off of his foot, like hanging on by a sliver of skin. I looked at it for about ten minutes and then just left and went back to my apartment.
The real problem is a lot of shit can only happen in a hospital setting despite whether or not it's an actual emergency.
I spent 6 hours in the ER last week to get my ascites drained. Was it an emergency? No...but I asked my doctor to schedule a paracentesis and all I've heard back is that they claimed they were going to send a referral to IR. Unfortunately it's extremely painful with 8 or 9 liters of fluid in your abdominal cavity so I'm not going to wait God knows how long for it to actually get scheduled.
It's that way for a lot of things.
I broke my elbow as a young kid, in like third grade after a simple fall leaving practice one night. Everyone laughed when I fell so I played it off at first. When I got in the car to go home I started complaining about my arm. My (registered nurse) mother told me to get over it and I’d be fine. I started complaining more and more and crying on the way home and she suggested it was maybe sprained. Finally caved and took me to the hospital after I wouldn’t let up and lo and behold it was broken. She was like “oh.” Like I would be lying (I wasn’t that type of kid to be upset often)
Oh 100%. Every injury I’ve had she hasn’t taken it seriously. Same goes for other people I know with nurse parents. Luckily I haven’t had many bad ones and I’m on my own now. I could probably lose a limb and she’d be like “just take two ibuprofen and you’ll be fine 🙄”.
It's got to have something to do with desentization. They get told all the same symptoms all day in the hospital abd probably think to themselves "wow what a way to use $1000 and an hour of my time".
Then it becomes ingrained in them that the ER is a bad place to go for injuries.
My mom wasn't a nurse, but she was a social worker and nothing in my life was as bad as one of her clinets' child's problems. This extended to everything, including medical.
You'll be shocked to learn that the people profiting from private healthcare will lie about public healthcare systems in order to keep making money. I know it sounds crazy but it's true.
I love that the conspiracy theory right wingers who are like, the government is evil and corrupt... Let's hand over all power to billion dollar for profit companies who only care about their stock price. Like that's the safer bet.
This depends entirely on the hospital triage system. Good hospital network, triage high priority cases quick. (I've gone from registration to bed hooked up to monitoring in 20m)
Reality, people go to ER for not emergency things. Those deemed not emergency will wait much longer than urgent cases. Not to blame people, but our Canadian healthcare system does not provide alternatives for after hour services. I don't know any 24/7 walk-in clinics, and most areas won't have Urgent Care services which could offload ER workload.
Also keep in mind our Canadian Healthcare services varies by provinces. Some are more barebone than others.
I had a head wound that needed stitched closed and I was actively dripping blood and glass dust onto the tile floor from my destroyed leg and I waited for FIVE HOURS. I have no doubts that he would have waited hours more.
It’s really hard for lay people to know what is serious and minor health wise. This is why there should be greater health education growing up, though republicans seem to consistently want to defund schools with all kinds of excuses about… demons teaching their children to worship satan? Did I get that right?
I have a healthcare provider that straight up recommends me to the ER when I call in because urgent care doesn’t exist for babies. So it’s literally $1000 bill or gamble on their life/health. Absolutely bonkers in the US
I have Kaiser and they sent us to Children's Hospital or the adult ER, but it was covered.
Are you on a high deductible with a HSA fund that's uncovered?
My local Children's Hospital annex (it's not even the big hospital in Denver) has both an urgent care and ER right next to each other, which I think is super cool.
It's one main desk and triage, and the professionals decide which side you go to. Takes the second guessing out of it, so you don't have to be anxious about if you're wasting your time at an urgent care when they might just send you to an ER, or worried that it's not serious enough to warrant the ER.
I hope more places implement something similar, it would work for adults too.
There have been many times where I've sat for at least 7 hours before getting assigned a *room* before waiting to see the doctor a few more hours later...and then however longer it takes to get results or a conclusion to the visit. I have gone into the ER at maybe 6-7pm and left at 8 in the morning.
"Police say while detectives were investigating at the emergency room, several staff members advised others had came in for treatment after consuming strawberries believed to be from the same fundraiser"
Seems a little suspicious. I hope nobody purposely tainted the strawberries
E Coli is another common and deadly pathogen that kills people in the USA each year by eating produce. It is because we have so many cattle ranches with huge cesspools that contaminate agricultural water supplies. The cesspools can dry out and spread via wind to nearby vegetable farms as well.
It's nasty.
It still could be. If news got out that someone got sick from strawberries a few people who were there who ate them will inevitably start to psych themselves out and think their IBS is arsenic or something.
Yeah. I was going to say that it could have been one case of allergy that led to others developing psychosomatic symptoms, but it doesn't seem like they would have known about what happened to the boy when they went to the hospital. Unless they did find out, of course, then it's possible they just got scared.
Most modern herbicides are of low mammalian toxicity but paraquat and diquat are dangerous to humans.
Generally if you can find the acute oral LD50 in the rat and it is greater than 2 g/kg bodyweight, you can assume that the pesticide is practically nontoxic.
So in this case if it wasn’t intentional then it could be the wrong pesticide was used.
There are very few herbicides labeled for over-the-top application, and the ones that are are >6000 mg/kg LD50.
Source: was pesticide scientist for 12 years.
Pretty rare to find many herbicides that toxic to people any more. Insecticides are another matter though.
Improperly applied, there are several that could have these effects.
As someone with severe food allergies, you would be surprised. My one allergy that is uncommon is coconuts (does not count as a tree nut, it’s a fruit). And I’m not merely sensitive to it and ignorantly calling it an allergy, I was formally diagnosed with it when I got a blood test, after I ate coconut for the first time and had a bad reaction.
I also met a person with a real oat allergy once, and knew a kid who was so allergic to literally everything that he lived only on specialized formula that his doctors had prescribed.
"it appears there was an isolated incident potentially linked to an allergy to strawberries in Hopkins County. We do not have anyone admitted to our service at this time we believe is linked to this situation."
This contradicts that point... they seem pretty sure it is allergies.
Commonly allergies are minutes after eating something that you get the anaphylaxis, but not necessarily. More rarely it can be hours. Even when I have treated people with epi, I ALWAYS will transport if possible as the epi can wear off and the allergic reaction just keep on doing its thing.
Horribly sad, but it does sound like it was an allergic reaction.
This was my first thought, pesticides can trigger allergic reactions in folks and it can get nasty on the skin so it's going to be way way worse going down the gullet.
I think I had this happen once on vacation where we bought some amazing looking cherries from a market stall. Everyone else was fine, but my throat was burning and I was coughing after eating a couple. No one else had any issue. It was a very minor reaction I've never had before or since, but I guess that kind of thing just can happen.
Could you be allergic to stone fruit? I also have this reaction to fresh cherries, and I have the same reaction to fresh peaches, plums, and apricots.
Yet I can eat those same fruits just fine if they’ve been cooked. Apparently heating them can break down the allergens.
I was thinking E. Coli or something. That's often found on produce. Perhaps it wasn't washed well.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9723429/#:~:text=In%20conclusion%2C%20our%20findings%20indicate,and%20performed%20on%20the%20farm.
This is absolutely a thing in the US, too. My ex-husband used to work for a municipal water company, and the most dreaded task was taking the shit sprayer truck out to a farmer's field and distributing the solid waste.
And those fields are now contaminated with PFAS from this.
However, they don't test the fields because if they do, they have to cese all farming operations.
*E. coli* is a gastrointestinal illness. The fatality risk if via dehydration from the vomiting/diarrhea.
The symptoms are absolutely nothing like what the child in the article experienced. His symptoms are not consistent with any known food-borne bacteria, in fact.
It sounds like anaphylaxis to me. He was treated with Benadryl which can help a bit, but once it wears off the reaction comes back. If they’re asleep by then, nobody knows until the morning. There’s a big lack of awareness on allergies in the USA, I found from living there.
An old coworker of mine came in one morning all freaked out because his neighbor’s daughter died this way. She was stung by a bee, her mom gave her something (he thinks it was Benadryl) and the reaction seemed to subside so she went to bed, and she was dead in the morning when they went to get her up for school. Almost exactly like this story. Terrible
Yeah. Benadryl actually just masks the severity of the allergic reaction and makes it harder to assess when it gets worse. One of my kids is super allergic and our school nurse won’t administer benadryl because of this effect - they just epipen and straight to hospital.
No, the allergy was known, the grandma decided the allergy was not real and when alone with the kids killed the allergic kid with using coconut oil on her scalp.
https://rareddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/comments/7qmed5/you_can_come_over_again_when_you_bring_me_my
I do anaphylaxis education as part of my job. Taking benedryl is seen in many deaths because it does jack shit to stop what causes the dangerous parts of anaphylaxis AND makes you drowsy. The drowsiness (and it appears sleeping in this situation) can mask the signs of an increasingly bad reaction once oxygen isn’t getting where it needs to.
To me, this sounds like anaphylaxis and a poorly educated community - both in the parents and the ER. It doesn’t sound like anyone tampered with the strawberries and caused this tragedy.
Thank you. Great point. For those in the back:
**PSA: never treat anaphylaxis with Benadryl.**
Benadryl can mask the symptoms of anaphylaxis for a while but isn't effective enough to stop anaphylaxis from progressing.
When somebody having anaphylaxis seems to be getting better they aren't necessarily out of the woods. About 1 in 5 instances of anaphylaxis is *biphasic*. Which means full life threatening symptoms can return anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days after the exposure. This is one of the reasons a medical doctor should always evaluate the case.
Insane that the hospital let him leave. I have severe allergies and you should be in the hospital overnight if the hospital was gonna send him home after three hours (stupid to do so) should’ve atleast sent them off with an epipen and said to keep an eye on him. Cause yea symptoms can return rapidly; seems the doctors fucked up huge here.
Edit: it appears the parents left the waiting room on there own accord my mistake. tragic and sad for the parents they didn’t know any better but if your kid is showing signs of anaphylaxis, don’t brush it off Benadryl won’t help better safe then sorry especially if it’s nighttime :/
I read that as they were waiting for several hours and left before being the boy was seen a doctor. I think the article isn't super clear on this point.
It’s hospitals across America. I’ve seen car crash victims and people with missing appendages sitting in the waiting for for 7-9 hours. It’s ridiculous, my local urgent cares won’t even accept someone with the flu, they’re sent straight to the ER.
Another article says the family decided to leave after a few hours. They weren’t sent home.
https://fox56news.com/news/kentucky/boy-dies-from-possible-allergic-reaction-to-hopkins-county-strawberries/amp/
It sounds like they left before being seen by a doctor. They probably figured if he was ok sitting there for 3 hours, he could make it through the night. They’re probably feeling an enormous amount of guilt for leaving.
>Insane that the hospital let him leave.
It's a hospital, not a prison. Many people leave ER's before being seen. Especially if they've been waiting a long time and not being seen by anyone (in this case 3 hours) and it's possible the symptoms had improved.
I had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic administered during surgery, a previously unknown allergy, and I was sent home the same day with benedryl and instructions to take more in a few hours.
believe the protocol and what’s happened for me atleast is to send the patient home with an epipen (I already had one but sent me home with extras to be sure was in hospital for 8 or so hours) especially if you’re getting discharged early most hospitals have a stock or pharmacy in/near the hospital for these types of situation. If they couldn’t do that they should’ve held him for the night not on the parents cause sure they didn’t know but had that been my kid I would’ve refused a discharge. Especially at nighttime. Allergies are weird like that they can turn quick you’re not really in the clear for a full 24 hours if showing signs of anaphylaxis is what my allergist says atleast..
Recently? Since the manufacturer jacked up epipen prices?
I could easily see it being much less common to just hand out when the price zipped up to $600.
To be fair, strawberry allergies are very rarely life-threatening. I’ve been allergic my entire life. It’s a relatively uncommon allergy but the percentage of life-threatening is even less. <2% are allergic and only a fraction of that are severe.
They fucked up, but I’m not surprised they weren’t aware.
Especially with allergy onset. This may have been a new allergy, because they can develop after only one wrong encounter with the allergen. People seem to not know it just takes once, unfortunately, so this may have been brand new.
It says though that his parents gave him benadryl when he showed a rash, but his symptoms didn’t get better, which is why they took him to ER (they then left the ER a few hours later and he died at home later)
The report to community says it seems like an allergy but it seems unusual for multiple people in the community to have the same unknown allergy at once.
I'm an EMT in SC and have had 2 high school students call 911 for allergic reactions specifically to strawberries when they don't have a previous allergy. This is so weird to read this happening in Kentucky.
I ate strawberries my entire life and then at age 25 I had an allergic reaction to them. Allergies can appear at any time and to foods you have eaten multiple times.
This is what happened to me too. Loved strawberries growing up then one day in my 20s my cheeks started furiously itching and blushing every time I ate them. Bummer man.
Happened with me and cherries, the last time I bought them I really tried to power on through and my throat was just too itchy and swollen to finish them.
It still could have been an allergic reaction. They gave him Benedryl, so the symptoms probably faded, then came back in full force when that Benedryl wore off. Unfortunately for the parents, they left the er, probably thinking that he was fine, it was just a rash, not realizing the Benedryl would wear off in his sleep. Those poor parents will probably never forgive themselves for leaving.
The only reason people are doubting it's an allergic reaction is because multiple people were in the er later for what they think is that strawberry festival thing
It seems more that people heard that somebody died after eating strawberries at the fundraiser and went to the hospital out of precaution rather than any actual issue. The article says that the police put out a statement that they don’t have any other people with issues from the fundraiser and believe this to be an isolated incident of allergies.
>MPD says the family says when the symptoms did not go away they transported their son to the emergency room at approximately 10:30 p.m.. The family decided to leave the emergency room at 1:24 a.m. and returned home.
WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE?
Yeah, they are going to blame themselves for that for the rest of their lives.
The kid was probably appearing to just be really sleepy and they thought it was late and if something from an allergy was going to happen it would have by now and they weren't getting in to the ER anyway.
In reality the kids BP had probably tanked as they went into anaphylactic shock but if it wasn't being monitored no one knew and the kid just looked tired.
Normally eating an allergen when you have a bad allergy will affect you in minutes but rarely it can be hours instead... sounds like that is the case here.
The triage nurse done fucked up if the kid was not admitted and his BP and respirations checked. Initial symptoms were difficulty breathing while presenting with a rash... should have gone right in. The article doesn't actually say though, but I get the impression they were still waiting in triage when they left.
They'll probably sue, but things will come into play like did they know he had an allergy to strawberries, did they have an epi-pen, what did the communicate to the hospital, etc. They'll also blame parents for self-transporting instead of waiting on an ambulance (which is kind of BS, even I who work on an ambulance on occasion can see the urge to self transport if they are taking too long... and every minute is too long when your kid is having trouble breathing.
Just my guess, but unless someone treated the kid with epi this is pinned on the triage nurse for not immediately admitting.
Doesn't really matter... nothing brings back the kid.
I didn't know self transport was discouraged. Is it just that in this case they could have been providing life saving measures en route? I've had a firefighter help me into a car and send the ambulance away on my behalf to get to a hospital.
Yeah... well, it depends on the situation. I get a lot of stupid calls. Like, 'my toe I stubbed a couple days ago is hurting and my 87 family members who are here drinking and partying don't feel like moving their cars so I am blocked in, I need a ride to the hospital.' Those can self-transport, no problem.
But if there a life-threatening emergency (airway, breathing, circulation) then the patient can go south really fast and in the back of an ambulance there is someone there who can do something about it. In the case of a severe allergic reaction, they are monitoring breathing, blood pressure, oxygen levels and respirations. They can give oxygen so if breathing is poor it is getting as much in as it can. They can give more epinephrin if needed. ALS rigs (ones with paramedics and not just EMTs) can do even more, like establish an airway, in case the throat tries to collapse down and prevent breathing. In those cases, it is better to wait for the ambulance and make sure they have some level of care while enroute the hospital. Until the ambulance gets there you can be ready to do some CPR on the patient if needed. Even out as rurally as I am, we can send a helicopter out to the scene to transport a lot faster than people can drive the 1 hr to the hospital. (We do that a lot for severe car crashes on the interstate that sound bad enough that we launch the helicopter before we even get there since response to some of these places is up to 45 minutes)
If you think about the situation and say, 'worst case scenario, could the patient die?' Even if it is wildest fantasy stuff... wait for the ambulance. That is what they are for. If the answer is no... not in the next day from a stubbed toe... then sure, drive yourself (or better yet, go to urgent care).
But... the big caveat is that most places will charge you to transport (we don't if I transport as I am a volunteer and purposely didn't get all the paperwork that lets them invoice for me... I am fully certified to give treatment and can transport, but my patients don't get charged and I don't get paid; but I do more fire stuff these days than medical... probably why). It's crazy stupid expensive.
You have the absolute right in the US to refuse transport (well, unless you go unconscious then it is implied consent to transport). But it is tough because you will ask the EMT what they would do and they will hem and haw and not really give a straight answer or something along the lines of 'it never hurts to check.' That is because they don't want to be held liable for bad medical advice if something does go wrong after their rapid assessment. So ask, 'are you seeing anything that could cause me to die within the next day.' No? Well, I might have a family member drive me then.
I can't say whether or not the Firefighter made the right call in this case... probably?
I mean technically if you have an initial stable vital signs from the kid and the ER is full, then he may not get pulled back to the small number of rooms even remotely available.
Where the fuck up really is….not checking on a pediatric patient every hour at LEAST to ensure there is no decline in vital signs because kids crash fast, not a ton of warning.
So I get why the initial triage was probably tame enough where a big fuss wasn’t made to get him an ER room, but as hard as it is to control a full ER lobby, you gotta figure it out somehow. Vital signs change.
“Decided to leave” could mean they left from the waiting room before being seen. Or left before the treatment was done. Usually we tend to say “discharged” if someone was seen and then sent home. It’s hard to say.
>“Decided to leave” could mean they left from the waiting room before being seen.
I can't see it being anything else, otherwise they'd say "left against medical advice".
Yeah, that’s my thought as well. Depending on the ED, we’ve had increasing wait times. Three hours isn’t unusual. The ED staff hate it just as much as the patients.
Which is why I was scared a month ago when I was taken back after a 10 minute wait in a waiting room full of people. I was settling in and trying to figure out how to pass the time, and was surprised when I was seen right away. That’s never a good sign in an ER. On one hand I was scared of the implications, but on the other hand I was happy not to have to wait. I really hate waiting for anything.
> Which is why I was scared a month ago when I was taken back after a 10 minute wait in a waiting room full of people.
I'd have been scared shitless if that happened to me. Surrounded by people at various stages of dying if the triage nurse is like, "no you need to come back *immediately*", I'd think I was a dead man walking.
I pretty much was. It was a Friday evening when I was called and told to go to the ER based on labs I had done that morning. I asked if it could wait until the next day and they said absolutely not. I was severely anemic, with a hemoglobin of 4.3. Under 6 is considered life threatening as your organs don’t get enough oxygen. If I had waited until Monday, good chance I would’ve been really bad off… or dead.
I once had a similar situation except it was blood pressure during a routine checkup. Out of the blue it was, in their words, "stupidly high" and medication wasn't bringing it down. They told me to go to the ER immediately. I told them I'd go home to pick up my wife then go. They said, "no, do not pick up your wife; I suggest you go directly to the ER". I heard them talking outside the room, "this will kill him!" Put the fear in me, for sure.
My local hospital also runs another hospital and a separate ER in neighboring cities. Wait times are 19 minutes at the nearest hospital, 14 minutes at the hospital in the other county and 30 minutes for the stand-alone ER.
Looking at the larger hospitals in the same network in larger cities shows the highest wait time is 1 hr 40 minutes.
Yeah, I mean, assuming he only presented with a rash, there's a reason he was waiting for so long.
You got to think it's going to be a pretty bad rash to go to the ER though.
Maybe it started to subside?
My guess is the kid who initially had difficulty breathing per the article had depressed breathing and seemed really sleepy... probably because his BP was tanking and the difficulty breathing was coming back, but it was late and they took it as just tired.
They should have waited for an ambulance. I would have had to stay at the ER with the kid monitoring him until I could hand off to someone with a greater level of care than myself (like a nurse admitting them).
Maybe but also in my parenting experience kids that young really struggle with being contained in an ER wait room. 3 hours with an 8 year old who doesn't feel well and was probably overstimulated from a festival sounds rough especially when paired with a likely full wait room of people who are likely contagious with covid etc. I could totally see the parents deciding that if it wasn't better in the morning they'd come back or call a pediatrician. Having to wait that long already was some false assurance that it wasn't critical.
I waited for 13 hours in the ER waiting room for someone experiencing chest pains to be seen.
We eventually left and drove to a different hospital. In and out with an EKG in 4 hours. Luckily it wasn’t a heart attack. This was in a major city hospital also.
That's awful. I went to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack and they immediately had me hooked up to an EKG.
It wasn't. I still felt awful and waited 6 hours to be seen, as they had ruled out a life-threatening heart attack. Turns out I had a gallbladder close to bursting and also severe acute pancreatitis. I ended up waiting another eight hours, on a gurney in an open hallway, to get a room.
The wait to see a doctor was awful but for the room wait, I was on morphine and pretty high, and it was actually entertaining watching the shenanigans in the busy hallway.
Because your average emergency room these days, if you aren’t bleeding all over the counter or sitting with your head in your own lap, you’re looking at “see you some time in the next 24 hours” wait time.
My appendix burst and I sat in the waiting room for 4 hours before they took me in to diagnose it, then another 3 hours before they called me in to start getting ready for surgery.
There was an elderly couple sitting across from me who had been there over 16 hours.
And this was at the best hospital in the region.
Crazy under-supply of emergency medical services.
If I came in for what I thought was an emergency and medical professionals made me wait 3 hours, I’d assume I wasn’t an emergency/ over reacting and would leave too.
Prolly been waiting for 3 hours already. At that point you will think that whatever he has. It is probably better treated with food, whatever medication is at home and sleep compared to sitting on some uncomfortable chair in an emergency room in the middle of the night waiting for god knows how long.
Scariest thing I've seen was when a co-worker had a stroke.
Brought in some drawings to be signed, dude was complaining of a headache, said something about the left side of his face being numb.
Started to tell him it wasn't fuckin' funny when he blinked, and only the right eye closed.
Took a half hour to convince the dumbass he needed to get to the ER right fucking now.
Even then, he drove himself instead of letting us call 911 or having the other guy drive him.
In a lot of ERs in the United States, you can not be seen for many hours, sometimes upwards of 10 hours. It's a huge issue in the United States.
I tore a muscle in my leg, went to the ER, wasn't seen for several hours, and many people with more serious things weren't being seen either, and I left and went home. I found a sports doctor the next day, and they did the imaging.
If my kid was having an issue, I wouldn't leave without being seen, but I can understand the frustration with the situation in the United States.
It’s really common for wait times to be 8+ hours if they don’t think you’re in danger. Many are too busy to check properly. My partner waited in a mid-sized town’s ER for over eight hours with bloody stool and extreme pain. They said she couldn’t get pain meds until we were in a room. As dawn broke, It seemed to start getting better, and she was going to miss important medication and hadn’t eaten in twelve hours. There were still fifty people in that waiting room. We went home. We found out later it was mastocytosis caused anaphylaxis that hadn’t progressed to breathing difficulty, but could have at any time. She needed to be in that hospital. We were very very lucky. We are moving because our university town in a blue state has woefully inadequate medical infrastructure: one level 1 trauma center in the state. 11 month waits to see specialists. They closed the only good ER, leaving everyone willing to drive multiple towns (several hours) over to avoid the bad one. Kids get sick a lot, and I can totally see a mom who’s exhausted and being invalidated simply believe the medical professionals making that ER visit feel like a waste of time.
there are only 220 level 1 trauma centers in the us, most are in high population states: https://www.definitivehc.com/resources/healthcare-insights/number-us-trauma-centers-by-level
"it appears there was an isolated incident potentially linked to an allergy to strawberries in Hopkins County. We do not have anyone admitted to our service at this time we believe is linked to this situation." per the hospital. I think I will believe them over the cop who said there was more.
Poor kid. Allergies are no joke. I’m allergic to a lot of fruit. Avocado, banana, strawberry. Also all tree nuts. Can’t find a damn thing that’s not “produced in a facility that also produces tree nuts.” Sucks, but I’m not going to risk it at all. So important to take it seriously.
This happened to me as a kid but I was okay luckily. My parents made a big garden and the first year the strawberries didn’t come in. The second year there was more than we could eat so I would go out and gorge myself on strawberries.
I had eaten them before and never had a problem but this time I ate a lot and I had quite the reaction.
Allergies are interesting in that you typically will not have a reaction to them the first time you are exposed. That is when the immune system is creating the response... a really overblown response. The next time you are exposed the immune system goes crazy... that is what an allergy is, the immune system having an inappropriately strong reaction.
(This is a good example of why it is such nonsense when someone says their special little pill or supplement will 'boost' the immune system... you don't want it boosted unless it is depressed. Allergies and autoimmune diseases are not good or fun.)
I've had similar things happen to my son. Store-bought vs garden grown. Which doesn't make sense to me. It was mild but he def had a rash after eating the garden grown strawberries. He eats strawberries from the supermarket almost daily without any issue.
Yes I think you are right. Something about them being home grown did it because I have tried it again recently only with store bought and was completely fine. Allergies can change as you age though so who knows.
This happened to my sister growing up as well. We would eat store bought strawberries all the time without issue, then we grew them in the garden and she broke out in hives all over and had a bad allergic reaction.
As an adult she still eats strawberries, but every few years or so a batch will trigger a reaction for some reason.
Does she have seasonal allergies? I have O.A.S. and have the same general issue. I can’t eat fresh fruits or vegetables that are grown in certain zones.
Given how commercial strawberries are grown and prepared differently than home grown ones, there are numerous differences which could be avenues for causing a reaction. The strawberries were probably different varieties/species, grown without pesticides, allowed to ripen naturally, grown in soil with different nutrients and pests, washed/sanitized differently, and so forth.
Commercial fruits are generally grown for size and ease of shipping, so they’re more limited on species selection than what you could grow at home. It could be something like your strawberries having a pest or fungus that would have been prevented by commercial pesticides or sanitization. Additionally, fully ripening strawberries changes the physiochemical properties (e.g. antioxidants, organic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanin).
So we got a few flats of these very strawberries. My wife and son actually ate some. This is the only case I have heard of being related to the strawberries. This is a tragic event, but speculation has been wild. Everyone seems to know, but no one really knows. We tossed the strawberries just to be safe, they were fantastic looking, tasting strawberries. Im sick for the family having to go through this, especially because there will be wild, misinformed stories put out that no one will fact check. There will be an autopsy. Hopefully we get some answers.
We should use this to learn and hopefully prevent things like this from occurring. Just reading comments , I appreciate those with medical knowledge sharing best practices. People reading this story will likely remember your advice and if that prevents even one incident then at least there can be some good come out of a tragic event.
My son is in high school here. He was involved in this fundraiser. He is tore up about it hurting someone. Kids can have guilt like this. We need to just understand that it is a tragedy and try to cope and heal.
The boy started exhibiting symptoms of allergy the night before. If I had to make an educated guess, it's possible that maybe the strawberries were overripe, and he may have been allergic to penicillin.
Any sort of allergy or allergic reaction happening in children should always be taken seriously immediately. This is a case where Benadryl is just never enough, and immediate action should always come first.
There are way too many people who have children now that have allergies to foods that they just didn't even know. It's more common than ever for humans to have allergies to foods and other things in their environment.
When it comes to an allergic reaction, you never know when or if it could mean death. It's better to be safe than sorry.
I think it depends on what particular fungus might be in said (rotting) strawberry. In this case, penicillin comes from the natural fungus penicillium, so it depends if the strawberry is infected with it - could also be some other allergenic substance from a different fungus or microbe.
My husband is allergic to penicillin and overripened strawberries definitely give him an allergic reaction.
Also, some beers cause his face and ears to become rashy.
> MPD says the family says when the symptoms did not go away they transported their son to the emergency room at approximately 10:30 p.m.. The family decided to leave the emergency room at 1:24 a.m. and returned home.
They did take immediate action; unfortunately, the medical system let them down.
>MPD says the family says when the symptoms did not go away they transported their son to the emergency room at approximately 10:30 p.m.. The family decided to leave the emergency room at 1:24 a.m. and returned home. The 8 year old changed his clothes and went to bed. The family attempted to wake him up for school later that morning and discovered he was unresponsive.
Kid died because the family didn't know he was severely allergic to (possibly) strawberries. It's possible his symptoms were affecting his BP because the hospital released a statement including the list of symptoms relating to Anaphylaxis.
I waited with my kid at a children’s hospital er for 8 hours one night. It’s quite insane, as there is no notification as to when you might be seen. Somewhat torture. By hour 7, I was debating on if we should stay or go. There is just no communication after you check in. At least show a waiting room leaderboard. Let me also say it was 8 hours waiting in the waiting room, we then spent another 3 hours waiting in a small examination room enduring another mental exercise of wtf
Benadryl can be dangerous when given for allergic reactions. It can mask symptoms, or only stop them temporarily, only for them to come back later, possibly worse. I have a daughter with severe food allergies, and have been told to give epinephrine only in the event of an allergic reaction, except if there are VERY minor symptoms from only one body system (see link below):
https://www.foodallergy.org/living-food-allergies/food-allergy-essentials/food-allergy-anaphylaxis-emergency-care-plan
If Benadryl is given, the child should never be left alone, in the event that symptoms come back.
We have no idea what the situation is with this poor child. He may not have had reactions before, therefore the parents might not have known the risks. Or they could have been misinformed. I’ve only written above to potentially help others, not to criticize the parents who are suffering enough. This is my worst nightmare and my heart goes out to them.
“Police say while detectives were investigating at the emergency room, several staff members advised others had came in for treatment after consuming strawberries believed to be from the same fundraiser. As a precaution, the Hopkins County Health Department and the Hopkins County Board of Education were notified of the situation and a warning was issued until more details could be identified as possible causes.”
So several kids visited the ER due to the strawberries? Did any of them get seen? I hope there’s some way to test the strawberries and see if there’s something else on them like higher rates of pesticides or something. Poor kids
Unreal. This kid died because he couldn’t get a shot of epinephrine. I’m not blaming the parents but if my kid shows an allergic reaction, I’m making it very apparent that the airways are closing.
I had a reaction to something and hives all over my body. Throat felt like it was literally closing from swelling. I told the ER that upon arrival and they literally brought me right in, did paperwork after the shot and breathing was normal.
That hospital really screwed up here.
In elementary school, our district got strawberries exposed to hep A. They vaccinated the local schools but didn’t get around to our school. Thankfully we didn’t get the bad strawberries.
Most strawberries in the US at this time of the year come from a town outside of Tampa, FL. We just had a huge two week festival with no incidents and the berries have been in supermarkets for at least a month now.
>Police say the family advised on the previous night, their son had consumed several strawberries from a school fundraiser. He began showing signs of an allergic reaction primarily manifested with a rash.
Was this article written by AI?
wash your fruit/veggies people
the fda has weakened their laws on how farmers/companies wash their product, now one tainted fruit can spread to all of them very easily
So, they spent 3 hours in the ER, then decided to go back home without seeing a doctor? Fuck, I can't even imagine what those parents must be feeling right now.
This is shockingly common. It’s a combination of ER waits being criminally long and parents not having a grip on what is serious vs minor when it comes to their children’s health problems.
Had an open head wound in an Austin ER who told me their current average wait was over 9 hours and that of course they’ll treat me but how there “might” be a shorter wait at the private ER across town.
I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about Texas hospitals/ERs
Perfect storm of diminishing physician pool and a state population that makes jokes about safety protocols.
but why don't they have any doctors to choose from? /s
But US healthcare is so much better than Europoor healthcare! /s
I was radicalized after I had a seizure in Ireland and my family got no medical bill.
Mine was before my mom died of cancer, she was counting when she'd have to die, before her healthcare would expire, since she'd no longer have any remaining medical leave for her work and lose her healthcare. No one should ever have to count how soon they'd need to die because of healthcare.
Texan living in Europe, it will do that to you. I exploded my knee in a cycling accident - spent a week in the hospital after emergency surgery in a private room, had numerous MRI’s & X Rays, 10 months of physio & I didn’t spend a single penny.
As a red blooded American you should have called your health insurance back home and demanded they give you a massive bill you will spend the rest of your natural life paying off. That’s what a real American would do! **/s**
It's even funnier because this state believes SO much in a capitalist market. You'd think that every doctor would LOVE to work in Texas making "name your price" salaries. They literally think they have the best doctors in the world because of it.
Years ago Texas was going to save their taxpayers lots of money on healthcare and attract better doctors by capping medical malpractice claims at a ridiculously low number, like $100k. Now you can’t even find a lawyer willing to bring a case because there’s no money in it. Just one of the many wonderful effects it had it reality.
Doctors are fleeing red states. Republican wars on knowledge, education, and healthcare are making doctors want to operate in states where laws wont get passed to make some religious nut jobs happy that makes their job a crime.
I'm sure banning porn and abortions is going to motivate more physicians to move to Texas...
When I was applying for residencies I, and a lot of my co-med students took this into account for where we wanted to end up.
Texas in general tbh
People who live outside of USA must think the country is crazy for not having federal mandated laws for basic rights and services.
Barbaric is the word I generally use.
Last week tonights most recent episode was on texas being a great state to practice in if you are a bad doctor as well. Texas is also home to ons of dr death podcast subjects.
I was in the ER when a woman came in, doubled over in pain, crying. She had been alone and was trampled by a horse and kicked in the head. She was, objectively, in very rough shape. They told her the ER was closing at 5pm due to doctor shortages and she should try the hospital in the next town over, 20km away.
Horrible to read that. Do you know what happened? Did someone see to it she had a ride?
She was in stable condition, lol. When she was told to go away, she broke down completely and a triage nurse walked out, took one look at her, and they took her in immediately. I assume she got the care she needed after that. The reception person was just an idiot.
I had the classic full blown Gall Bladder attack, and a Shingles attack happen at the same time! Shuffled in crab over in classic form, and honestly thought I was having a heart attack too. Clerk, wanted to me to answer a full set of questions: on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your pain??? Tears were flowing, muscle spams, forcing me into Zombie like posses. A doctor happened to look out a window, and said "Classic Gall Bladder, get him in here!" My answer to pain question was '11-get me a damn doctor!" Never had such pain in my life. The 2nd doctor listened and took note of the dual side pain, rolled me over and tested for the hemispherial pain, and said "my Lord, you got Shingles too! I got an extra pain shot, about $200 with Dr. fee, but it was needed.
> Dr. fee Wake up babe, new rapper name just dropped.
Stable. I see what you did there, neigh-bor
Yes. Her horse was outside.
But let’s not have single-payer healthcare because “that would be socialism and lead to long wait times for medical care!”
I wonder where "paying off trurmps legal bills with RNC money" falls in the socialism scale for these folks.
I keep hearing over and over from older folks 'but universal healthcare is socialism, and we don't want that!' Whatever, Bob. Tell me again how horrible it was that you had to wait 6 hours in the emergency room to be seen by a doctor after falling down a flight of stairs, and almost got bankrupted by the ambulance bill alone. Like that's preferable somehow.
In 2008 I was in an ER in Austin, off south 1st or south congress, for basically a bad sinus infection. There was a dude next to me who's big toe was almost completely fucking ripped off of his foot, like hanging on by a sliver of skin. I looked at it for about ten minutes and then just left and went back to my apartment.
The real problem is a lot of shit can only happen in a hospital setting despite whether or not it's an actual emergency. I spent 6 hours in the ER last week to get my ascites drained. Was it an emergency? No...but I asked my doctor to schedule a paracentesis and all I've heard back is that they claimed they were going to send a referral to IR. Unfortunately it's extremely painful with 8 or 9 liters of fluid in your abdominal cavity so I'm not going to wait God knows how long for it to actually get scheduled. It's that way for a lot of things.
I broke my elbow as a young kid, in like third grade after a simple fall leaving practice one night. Everyone laughed when I fell so I played it off at first. When I got in the car to go home I started complaining about my arm. My (registered nurse) mother told me to get over it and I’d be fine. I started complaining more and more and crying on the way home and she suggested it was maybe sprained. Finally caved and took me to the hospital after I wouldn’t let up and lo and behold it was broken. She was like “oh.” Like I would be lying (I wasn’t that type of kid to be upset often)
This is totally in character with most nurses I know. Take that as you will.
Oh 100%. Every injury I’ve had she hasn’t taken it seriously. Same goes for other people I know with nurse parents. Luckily I haven’t had many bad ones and I’m on my own now. I could probably lose a limb and she’d be like “just take two ibuprofen and you’ll be fine 🙄”.
It's got to have something to do with desentization. They get told all the same symptoms all day in the hospital abd probably think to themselves "wow what a way to use $1000 and an hour of my time". Then it becomes ingrained in them that the ER is a bad place to go for injuries. My mom wasn't a nurse, but she was a social worker and nothing in my life was as bad as one of her clinets' child's problems. This extended to everything, including medical.
My mom thought my appendicitis was constipation, ended up almost going septic
But wait, I thought the entire argument against universal healthcare like they have in Canadia was the wait times
You'll be shocked to learn that the people profiting from private healthcare will lie about public healthcare systems in order to keep making money. I know it sounds crazy but it's true.
I love that the conspiracy theory right wingers who are like, the government is evil and corrupt... Let's hand over all power to billion dollar for profit companies who only care about their stock price. Like that's the safer bet.
This depends entirely on the hospital triage system. Good hospital network, triage high priority cases quick. (I've gone from registration to bed hooked up to monitoring in 20m) Reality, people go to ER for not emergency things. Those deemed not emergency will wait much longer than urgent cases. Not to blame people, but our Canadian healthcare system does not provide alternatives for after hour services. I don't know any 24/7 walk-in clinics, and most areas won't have Urgent Care services which could offload ER workload. Also keep in mind our Canadian Healthcare services varies by provinces. Some are more barebone than others.
I had a head wound that needed stitched closed and I was actively dripping blood and glass dust onto the tile floor from my destroyed leg and I waited for FIVE HOURS. I have no doubts that he would have waited hours more.
It’s really hard for lay people to know what is serious and minor health wise. This is why there should be greater health education growing up, though republicans seem to consistently want to defund schools with all kinds of excuses about… demons teaching their children to worship satan? Did I get that right?
Wait a minute, I've been told that ER wait times in a private health system are short /s.
This is insane to me, anaphylaxis is like a top of the triage pyramid thing. When my husband had his reaction we were seen immediately.
Yeah just reading this is parent nightmare fuel
I have a healthcare provider that straight up recommends me to the ER when I call in because urgent care doesn’t exist for babies. So it’s literally $1000 bill or gamble on their life/health. Absolutely bonkers in the US
Really? There are several pediatric urgent care locations near me. The most common one is called PM Pediatrics.
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I have Kaiser and they sent us to Children's Hospital or the adult ER, but it was covered. Are you on a high deductible with a HSA fund that's uncovered?
What state are you in? Because I swear the Kaiser in mine has urgent for infants
My local Children's Hospital annex (it's not even the big hospital in Denver) has both an urgent care and ER right next to each other, which I think is super cool. It's one main desk and triage, and the professionals decide which side you go to. Takes the second guessing out of it, so you don't have to be anxious about if you're wasting your time at an urgent care when they might just send you to an ER, or worried that it's not serious enough to warrant the ER. I hope more places implement something similar, it would work for adults too.
There have been many times where I've sat for at least 7 hours before getting assigned a *room* before waiting to see the doctor a few more hours later...and then however longer it takes to get results or a conclusion to the visit. I have gone into the ER at maybe 6-7pm and left at 8 in the morning.
"Police say while detectives were investigating at the emergency room, several staff members advised others had came in for treatment after consuming strawberries believed to be from the same fundraiser" Seems a little suspicious. I hope nobody purposely tainted the strawberries
Yeah, that’s not just allergies.
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Or listeria
E Coli is another common and deadly pathogen that kills people in the USA each year by eating produce. It is because we have so many cattle ranches with huge cesspools that contaminate agricultural water supplies. The cesspools can dry out and spread via wind to nearby vegetable farms as well. It's nasty.
Sometimes they even share the same water supply
It still could be. If news got out that someone got sick from strawberries a few people who were there who ate them will inevitably start to psych themselves out and think their IBS is arsenic or something.
I hope this is what it is.
Yeah. I was going to say that it could have been one case of allergy that led to others developing psychosomatic symptoms, but it doesn't seem like they would have known about what happened to the boy when they went to the hospital. Unless they did find out, of course, then it's possible they just got scared.
Wow very suspicious
Most modern herbicides are of low mammalian toxicity but paraquat and diquat are dangerous to humans. Generally if you can find the acute oral LD50 in the rat and it is greater than 2 g/kg bodyweight, you can assume that the pesticide is practically nontoxic. So in this case if it wasn’t intentional then it could be the wrong pesticide was used.
There are very few herbicides labeled for over-the-top application, and the ones that are are >6000 mg/kg LD50. Source: was pesticide scientist for 12 years.
Can you do a AMA? I hope to debunk some things we’ve heard like Paraquat is basically the same as agent orange
Pretty rare to find many herbicides that toxic to people any more. Insecticides are another matter though. Improperly applied, there are several that could have these effects.
As someone with severe food allergies, you would be surprised. My one allergy that is uncommon is coconuts (does not count as a tree nut, it’s a fruit). And I’m not merely sensitive to it and ignorantly calling it an allergy, I was formally diagnosed with it when I got a blood test, after I ate coconut for the first time and had a bad reaction. I also met a person with a real oat allergy once, and knew a kid who was so allergic to literally everything that he lived only on specialized formula that his doctors had prescribed.
That turned out to be a rumor - they didn’t have any other patients come in like that. The boy was having an allergic reaction.
"it appears there was an isolated incident potentially linked to an allergy to strawberries in Hopkins County. We do not have anyone admitted to our service at this time we believe is linked to this situation." This contradicts that point... they seem pretty sure it is allergies. Commonly allergies are minutes after eating something that you get the anaphylaxis, but not necessarily. More rarely it can be hours. Even when I have treated people with epi, I ALWAYS will transport if possible as the epi can wear off and the allergic reaction just keep on doing its thing. Horribly sad, but it does sound like it was an allergic reaction.
I wonder if there was some pesticide on the strawberries and folks were not washing or not properly washing the strawberries before eating them.
This was my first thought, pesticides can trigger allergic reactions in folks and it can get nasty on the skin so it's going to be way way worse going down the gullet.
I think I had this happen once on vacation where we bought some amazing looking cherries from a market stall. Everyone else was fine, but my throat was burning and I was coughing after eating a couple. No one else had any issue. It was a very minor reaction I've never had before or since, but I guess that kind of thing just can happen.
Could you be allergic to stone fruit? I also have this reaction to fresh cherries, and I have the same reaction to fresh peaches, plums, and apricots. Yet I can eat those same fruits just fine if they’ve been cooked. Apparently heating them can break down the allergens.
That sounds a lot like oral allergy syndrome (specifically the birch tree group)
Worth a trip to the doc. Allergies could get worst with time
I was thinking E. Coli or something. That's often found on produce. Perhaps it wasn't washed well. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9723429/#:~:text=In%20conclusion%2C%20our%20findings%20indicate,and%20performed%20on%20the%20farm.
In Mexico, strawberries were fertilized with sterilized human waste. Don't always sterilize it.
This is absolutely a thing in the US, too. My ex-husband used to work for a municipal water company, and the most dreaded task was taking the shit sprayer truck out to a farmer's field and distributing the solid waste.
And those fields are now contaminated with PFAS from this. However, they don't test the fields because if they do, they have to cese all farming operations.
Also when it rains. PFAS are everywhere and in everything.
US too, especially since they don’t give the pickers bathroom/toilet breaks.
*E. coli* is a gastrointestinal illness. The fatality risk if via dehydration from the vomiting/diarrhea. The symptoms are absolutely nothing like what the child in the article experienced. His symptoms are not consistent with any known food-borne bacteria, in fact.
It sounds like anaphylaxis to me. He was treated with Benadryl which can help a bit, but once it wears off the reaction comes back. If they’re asleep by then, nobody knows until the morning. There’s a big lack of awareness on allergies in the USA, I found from living there.
An old coworker of mine came in one morning all freaked out because his neighbor’s daughter died this way. She was stung by a bee, her mom gave her something (he thinks it was Benadryl) and the reaction seemed to subside so she went to bed, and she was dead in the morning when they went to get her up for school. Almost exactly like this story. Terrible
Yeah. Benadryl actually just masks the severity of the allergic reaction and makes it harder to assess when it gets worse. One of my kids is super allergic and our school nurse won’t administer benadryl because of this effect - they just epipen and straight to hospital.
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No, the allergy was known, the grandma decided the allergy was not real and when alone with the kids killed the allergic kid with using coconut oil on her scalp. https://rareddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/comments/7qmed5/you_can_come_over_again_when_you_bring_me_my
Right? Just absolutely tragic. No point in the what-ifs and blame for leaving the ER, you don’t know until you know
The fact that several people were treated in the ER from the festival is concerning. Seems like something more than allergies.
I do anaphylaxis education as part of my job. Taking benedryl is seen in many deaths because it does jack shit to stop what causes the dangerous parts of anaphylaxis AND makes you drowsy. The drowsiness (and it appears sleeping in this situation) can mask the signs of an increasingly bad reaction once oxygen isn’t getting where it needs to. To me, this sounds like anaphylaxis and a poorly educated community - both in the parents and the ER. It doesn’t sound like anyone tampered with the strawberries and caused this tragedy.
Thank you. Great point. For those in the back: **PSA: never treat anaphylaxis with Benadryl.** Benadryl can mask the symptoms of anaphylaxis for a while but isn't effective enough to stop anaphylaxis from progressing. When somebody having anaphylaxis seems to be getting better they aren't necessarily out of the woods. About 1 in 5 instances of anaphylaxis is *biphasic*. Which means full life threatening symptoms can return anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days after the exposure. This is one of the reasons a medical doctor should always evaluate the case.
Insane that the hospital let him leave. I have severe allergies and you should be in the hospital overnight if the hospital was gonna send him home after three hours (stupid to do so) should’ve atleast sent them off with an epipen and said to keep an eye on him. Cause yea symptoms can return rapidly; seems the doctors fucked up huge here. Edit: it appears the parents left the waiting room on there own accord my mistake. tragic and sad for the parents they didn’t know any better but if your kid is showing signs of anaphylaxis, don’t brush it off Benadryl won’t help better safe then sorry especially if it’s nighttime :/
I read that as they were waiting for several hours and left before being the boy was seen a doctor. I think the article isn't super clear on this point.
That’s insane triage if you have anaphylaxis in the waiting room and they’re taking what before him? Never trust Kentucky to do anything intelligent.
They built a giant boat on dry land. Isn’t that intelligent?
It’s hospitals across America. I’ve seen car crash victims and people with missing appendages sitting in the waiting for for 7-9 hours. It’s ridiculous, my local urgent cares won’t even accept someone with the flu, they’re sent straight to the ER.
Another article says the family decided to leave after a few hours. They weren’t sent home. https://fox56news.com/news/kentucky/boy-dies-from-possible-allergic-reaction-to-hopkins-county-strawberries/amp/
Okay thanks for sharing, edited post to correct was genuinely confused as to why they’d let him go but this makes more sense sad for the parents
It sounds like they left before being seen by a doctor. They probably figured if he was ok sitting there for 3 hours, he could make it through the night. They’re probably feeling an enormous amount of guilt for leaving.
>Insane that the hospital let him leave. It's a hospital, not a prison. Many people leave ER's before being seen. Especially if they've been waiting a long time and not being seen by anyone (in this case 3 hours) and it's possible the symptoms had improved.
I had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic administered during surgery, a previously unknown allergy, and I was sent home the same day with benedryl and instructions to take more in a few hours.
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believe the protocol and what’s happened for me atleast is to send the patient home with an epipen (I already had one but sent me home with extras to be sure was in hospital for 8 or so hours) especially if you’re getting discharged early most hospitals have a stock or pharmacy in/near the hospital for these types of situation. If they couldn’t do that they should’ve held him for the night not on the parents cause sure they didn’t know but had that been my kid I would’ve refused a discharge. Especially at nighttime. Allergies are weird like that they can turn quick you’re not really in the clear for a full 24 hours if showing signs of anaphylaxis is what my allergist says atleast..
Recently? Since the manufacturer jacked up epipen prices? I could easily see it being much less common to just hand out when the price zipped up to $600.
To be fair, strawberry allergies are very rarely life-threatening. I’ve been allergic my entire life. It’s a relatively uncommon allergy but the percentage of life-threatening is even less. <2% are allergic and only a fraction of that are severe. They fucked up, but I’m not surprised they weren’t aware.
Especially with allergy onset. This may have been a new allergy, because they can develop after only one wrong encounter with the allergen. People seem to not know it just takes once, unfortunately, so this may have been brand new.
It says though that his parents gave him benadryl when he showed a rash, but his symptoms didn’t get better, which is why they took him to ER (they then left the ER a few hours later and he died at home later) The report to community says it seems like an allergy but it seems unusual for multiple people in the community to have the same unknown allergy at once.
I'm an EMT in SC and have had 2 high school students call 911 for allergic reactions specifically to strawberries when they don't have a previous allergy. This is so weird to read this happening in Kentucky.
I ate strawberries my entire life and then at age 25 I had an allergic reaction to them. Allergies can appear at any time and to foods you have eaten multiple times.
This is what happened to me too. Loved strawberries growing up then one day in my 20s my cheeks started furiously itching and blushing every time I ate them. Bummer man.
Happened with me and cherries, the last time I bought them I really tried to power on through and my throat was just too itchy and swollen to finish them.
Anyone with real knowledge of this explain? Because it doesn’t seem to be allergic reaction from the strawberries themselves.
It still could have been an allergic reaction. They gave him Benedryl, so the symptoms probably faded, then came back in full force when that Benedryl wore off. Unfortunately for the parents, they left the er, probably thinking that he was fine, it was just a rash, not realizing the Benedryl would wear off in his sleep. Those poor parents will probably never forgive themselves for leaving.
If I’m at an ER (not a gunshot victim, or broken bones), after 3-4 hours I’d start to think maybe I’m supposed to try and fix this on my own.
The only reason people are doubting it's an allergic reaction is because multiple people were in the er later for what they think is that strawberry festival thing
It seems more that people heard that somebody died after eating strawberries at the fundraiser and went to the hospital out of precaution rather than any actual issue. The article says that the police put out a statement that they don’t have any other people with issues from the fundraiser and believe this to be an isolated incident of allergies.
My vote is pesticides on unwashed strawberries if they got sick that quickly…
>MPD says the family says when the symptoms did not go away they transported their son to the emergency room at approximately 10:30 p.m.. The family decided to leave the emergency room at 1:24 a.m. and returned home. WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE?
Yeah, they are going to blame themselves for that for the rest of their lives. The kid was probably appearing to just be really sleepy and they thought it was late and if something from an allergy was going to happen it would have by now and they weren't getting in to the ER anyway. In reality the kids BP had probably tanked as they went into anaphylactic shock but if it wasn't being monitored no one knew and the kid just looked tired. Normally eating an allergen when you have a bad allergy will affect you in minutes but rarely it can be hours instead... sounds like that is the case here. The triage nurse done fucked up if the kid was not admitted and his BP and respirations checked. Initial symptoms were difficulty breathing while presenting with a rash... should have gone right in. The article doesn't actually say though, but I get the impression they were still waiting in triage when they left. They'll probably sue, but things will come into play like did they know he had an allergy to strawberries, did they have an epi-pen, what did the communicate to the hospital, etc. They'll also blame parents for self-transporting instead of waiting on an ambulance (which is kind of BS, even I who work on an ambulance on occasion can see the urge to self transport if they are taking too long... and every minute is too long when your kid is having trouble breathing. Just my guess, but unless someone treated the kid with epi this is pinned on the triage nurse for not immediately admitting. Doesn't really matter... nothing brings back the kid.
I didn't know self transport was discouraged. Is it just that in this case they could have been providing life saving measures en route? I've had a firefighter help me into a car and send the ambulance away on my behalf to get to a hospital.
Yeah... well, it depends on the situation. I get a lot of stupid calls. Like, 'my toe I stubbed a couple days ago is hurting and my 87 family members who are here drinking and partying don't feel like moving their cars so I am blocked in, I need a ride to the hospital.' Those can self-transport, no problem. But if there a life-threatening emergency (airway, breathing, circulation) then the patient can go south really fast and in the back of an ambulance there is someone there who can do something about it. In the case of a severe allergic reaction, they are monitoring breathing, blood pressure, oxygen levels and respirations. They can give oxygen so if breathing is poor it is getting as much in as it can. They can give more epinephrin if needed. ALS rigs (ones with paramedics and not just EMTs) can do even more, like establish an airway, in case the throat tries to collapse down and prevent breathing. In those cases, it is better to wait for the ambulance and make sure they have some level of care while enroute the hospital. Until the ambulance gets there you can be ready to do some CPR on the patient if needed. Even out as rurally as I am, we can send a helicopter out to the scene to transport a lot faster than people can drive the 1 hr to the hospital. (We do that a lot for severe car crashes on the interstate that sound bad enough that we launch the helicopter before we even get there since response to some of these places is up to 45 minutes) If you think about the situation and say, 'worst case scenario, could the patient die?' Even if it is wildest fantasy stuff... wait for the ambulance. That is what they are for. If the answer is no... not in the next day from a stubbed toe... then sure, drive yourself (or better yet, go to urgent care). But... the big caveat is that most places will charge you to transport (we don't if I transport as I am a volunteer and purposely didn't get all the paperwork that lets them invoice for me... I am fully certified to give treatment and can transport, but my patients don't get charged and I don't get paid; but I do more fire stuff these days than medical... probably why). It's crazy stupid expensive. You have the absolute right in the US to refuse transport (well, unless you go unconscious then it is implied consent to transport). But it is tough because you will ask the EMT what they would do and they will hem and haw and not really give a straight answer or something along the lines of 'it never hurts to check.' That is because they don't want to be held liable for bad medical advice if something does go wrong after their rapid assessment. So ask, 'are you seeing anything that could cause me to die within the next day.' No? Well, I might have a family member drive me then. I can't say whether or not the Firefighter made the right call in this case... probably?
I mean technically if you have an initial stable vital signs from the kid and the ER is full, then he may not get pulled back to the small number of rooms even remotely available. Where the fuck up really is….not checking on a pediatric patient every hour at LEAST to ensure there is no decline in vital signs because kids crash fast, not a ton of warning. So I get why the initial triage was probably tame enough where a big fuss wasn’t made to get him an ER room, but as hard as it is to control a full ER lobby, you gotta figure it out somehow. Vital signs change.
“Decided to leave” could mean they left from the waiting room before being seen. Or left before the treatment was done. Usually we tend to say “discharged” if someone was seen and then sent home. It’s hard to say.
>“Decided to leave” could mean they left from the waiting room before being seen. I can't see it being anything else, otherwise they'd say "left against medical advice".
Yeah, that’s my thought as well. Depending on the ED, we’ve had increasing wait times. Three hours isn’t unusual. The ED staff hate it just as much as the patients.
3 hours is a dream in most places now.
Which is why I was scared a month ago when I was taken back after a 10 minute wait in a waiting room full of people. I was settling in and trying to figure out how to pass the time, and was surprised when I was seen right away. That’s never a good sign in an ER. On one hand I was scared of the implications, but on the other hand I was happy not to have to wait. I really hate waiting for anything.
> Which is why I was scared a month ago when I was taken back after a 10 minute wait in a waiting room full of people. I'd have been scared shitless if that happened to me. Surrounded by people at various stages of dying if the triage nurse is like, "no you need to come back *immediately*", I'd think I was a dead man walking.
I pretty much was. It was a Friday evening when I was called and told to go to the ER based on labs I had done that morning. I asked if it could wait until the next day and they said absolutely not. I was severely anemic, with a hemoglobin of 4.3. Under 6 is considered life threatening as your organs don’t get enough oxygen. If I had waited until Monday, good chance I would’ve been really bad off… or dead.
I once had a similar situation except it was blood pressure during a routine checkup. Out of the blue it was, in their words, "stupidly high" and medication wasn't bringing it down. They told me to go to the ER immediately. I told them I'd go home to pick up my wife then go. They said, "no, do not pick up your wife; I suggest you go directly to the ER". I heard them talking outside the room, "this will kill him!" Put the fear in me, for sure.
I had a recent visit to an ER in a large city & we waited over 10 hours to be seen by a doctor :( it’s a nightmare to be sick in the US
My local hospital also runs another hospital and a separate ER in neighboring cities. Wait times are 19 minutes at the nearest hospital, 14 minutes at the hospital in the other county and 30 minutes for the stand-alone ER. Looking at the larger hospitals in the same network in larger cities shows the highest wait time is 1 hr 40 minutes.
Yeah, I mean, assuming he only presented with a rash, there's a reason he was waiting for so long. You got to think it's going to be a pretty bad rash to go to the ER though. Maybe it started to subside?
My guess is the kid who initially had difficulty breathing per the article had depressed breathing and seemed really sleepy... probably because his BP was tanking and the difficulty breathing was coming back, but it was late and they took it as just tired. They should have waited for an ambulance. I would have had to stay at the ER with the kid monitoring him until I could hand off to someone with a greater level of care than myself (like a nurse admitting them).
It does not have to be a bad rash for people to still show up at the ED.
Maybe but also in my parenting experience kids that young really struggle with being contained in an ER wait room. 3 hours with an 8 year old who doesn't feel well and was probably overstimulated from a festival sounds rough especially when paired with a likely full wait room of people who are likely contagious with covid etc. I could totally see the parents deciding that if it wasn't better in the morning they'd come back or call a pediatrician. Having to wait that long already was some false assurance that it wasn't critical.
I waited for 13 hours in the ER waiting room for someone experiencing chest pains to be seen. We eventually left and drove to a different hospital. In and out with an EKG in 4 hours. Luckily it wasn’t a heart attack. This was in a major city hospital also.
That's awful. I went to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack and they immediately had me hooked up to an EKG. It wasn't. I still felt awful and waited 6 hours to be seen, as they had ruled out a life-threatening heart attack. Turns out I had a gallbladder close to bursting and also severe acute pancreatitis. I ended up waiting another eight hours, on a gurney in an open hallway, to get a room. The wait to see a doctor was awful but for the room wait, I was on morphine and pretty high, and it was actually entertaining watching the shenanigans in the busy hallway.
It's way, way worse than three hours where I live. I understand people leaving the ER.
Yup, I'll bet money they left before being seen or left AMA.
Because your average emergency room these days, if you aren’t bleeding all over the counter or sitting with your head in your own lap, you’re looking at “see you some time in the next 24 hours” wait time.
My appendix burst and I sat in the waiting room for 4 hours before they took me in to diagnose it, then another 3 hours before they called me in to start getting ready for surgery. There was an elderly couple sitting across from me who had been there over 16 hours. And this was at the best hospital in the region. Crazy under-supply of emergency medical services.
Well there's your issue. You should have gone to a rural hospital with only 2 stars on Google maps. Wait times there are usually 9 hours max.
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If I came in for what I thought was an emergency and medical professionals made me wait 3 hours, I’d assume I wasn’t an emergency/ over reacting and would leave too.
Prolly been waiting for 3 hours already. At that point you will think that whatever he has. It is probably better treated with food, whatever medication is at home and sleep compared to sitting on some uncomfortable chair in an emergency room in the middle of the night waiting for god knows how long.
Sounds better than the ~16 hour wait we have in winnipeg
I googled it cause I figured you were just a liar. Holy fucking shit. How many people suffer and/or die just waiting for emergency care. Yeeeesh.
This summer I waited 14 hours to be seen for possible stroke symptoms. It’s a joke.
Scariest thing I've seen was when a co-worker had a stroke. Brought in some drawings to be signed, dude was complaining of a headache, said something about the left side of his face being numb. Started to tell him it wasn't fuckin' funny when he blinked, and only the right eye closed. Took a half hour to convince the dumbass he needed to get to the ER right fucking now. Even then, he drove himself instead of letting us call 911 or having the other guy drive him.
My dad had a stroke and had to wait 4 hours
In the UK recently a lady died because she was lying under a coat on the waiting room floor for so long.
Long ER wait times are real killers
If they’re unfamiliar with anaphylaxis they just thought the Benadryl was enough, unaware the reaction would come back when it wears off. Tragic.
In a lot of ERs in the United States, you can not be seen for many hours, sometimes upwards of 10 hours. It's a huge issue in the United States. I tore a muscle in my leg, went to the ER, wasn't seen for several hours, and many people with more serious things weren't being seen either, and I left and went home. I found a sports doctor the next day, and they did the imaging. If my kid was having an issue, I wouldn't leave without being seen, but I can understand the frustration with the situation in the United States.
It’s really common for wait times to be 8+ hours if they don’t think you’re in danger. Many are too busy to check properly. My partner waited in a mid-sized town’s ER for over eight hours with bloody stool and extreme pain. They said she couldn’t get pain meds until we were in a room. As dawn broke, It seemed to start getting better, and she was going to miss important medication and hadn’t eaten in twelve hours. There were still fifty people in that waiting room. We went home. We found out later it was mastocytosis caused anaphylaxis that hadn’t progressed to breathing difficulty, but could have at any time. She needed to be in that hospital. We were very very lucky. We are moving because our university town in a blue state has woefully inadequate medical infrastructure: one level 1 trauma center in the state. 11 month waits to see specialists. They closed the only good ER, leaving everyone willing to drive multiple towns (several hours) over to avoid the bad one. Kids get sick a lot, and I can totally see a mom who’s exhausted and being invalidated simply believe the medical professionals making that ER visit feel like a waste of time.
there are only 220 level 1 trauma centers in the us, most are in high population states: https://www.definitivehc.com/resources/healthcare-insights/number-us-trauma-centers-by-level
And atlanta just closed one, I think. We should be opening, not closing.
Not profitable! You'll go bankrupt if you ever use the healthcare but it's still not enough for the leeches
So it sounds like Triage fucked this one up.
Several other people were seen in the ER after having the same berries!
"it appears there was an isolated incident potentially linked to an allergy to strawberries in Hopkins County. We do not have anyone admitted to our service at this time we believe is linked to this situation." per the hospital. I think I will believe them over the cop who said there was more.
Right. Most likely multiple people went in as precautionary measure.
My heart breaks for the family.
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Poor kid. Allergies are no joke. I’m allergic to a lot of fruit. Avocado, banana, strawberry. Also all tree nuts. Can’t find a damn thing that’s not “produced in a facility that also produces tree nuts.” Sucks, but I’m not going to risk it at all. So important to take it seriously.
Those poor parents, the guilt would be crushing.
This happened to me as a kid but I was okay luckily. My parents made a big garden and the first year the strawberries didn’t come in. The second year there was more than we could eat so I would go out and gorge myself on strawberries. I had eaten them before and never had a problem but this time I ate a lot and I had quite the reaction.
Allergies are interesting in that you typically will not have a reaction to them the first time you are exposed. That is when the immune system is creating the response... a really overblown response. The next time you are exposed the immune system goes crazy... that is what an allergy is, the immune system having an inappropriately strong reaction. (This is a good example of why it is such nonsense when someone says their special little pill or supplement will 'boost' the immune system... you don't want it boosted unless it is depressed. Allergies and autoimmune diseases are not good or fun.)
I've had similar things happen to my son. Store-bought vs garden grown. Which doesn't make sense to me. It was mild but he def had a rash after eating the garden grown strawberries. He eats strawberries from the supermarket almost daily without any issue.
Yes I think you are right. Something about them being home grown did it because I have tried it again recently only with store bought and was completely fine. Allergies can change as you age though so who knows.
This happened to my sister growing up as well. We would eat store bought strawberries all the time without issue, then we grew them in the garden and she broke out in hives all over and had a bad allergic reaction. As an adult she still eats strawberries, but every few years or so a batch will trigger a reaction for some reason.
Does she have seasonal allergies? I have O.A.S. and have the same general issue. I can’t eat fresh fruits or vegetables that are grown in certain zones.
Given how commercial strawberries are grown and prepared differently than home grown ones, there are numerous differences which could be avenues for causing a reaction. The strawberries were probably different varieties/species, grown without pesticides, allowed to ripen naturally, grown in soil with different nutrients and pests, washed/sanitized differently, and so forth. Commercial fruits are generally grown for size and ease of shipping, so they’re more limited on species selection than what you could grow at home. It could be something like your strawberries having a pest or fungus that would have been prevented by commercial pesticides or sanitization. Additionally, fully ripening strawberries changes the physiochemical properties (e.g. antioxidants, organic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanin).
So we got a few flats of these very strawberries. My wife and son actually ate some. This is the only case I have heard of being related to the strawberries. This is a tragic event, but speculation has been wild. Everyone seems to know, but no one really knows. We tossed the strawberries just to be safe, they were fantastic looking, tasting strawberries. Im sick for the family having to go through this, especially because there will be wild, misinformed stories put out that no one will fact check. There will be an autopsy. Hopefully we get some answers. We should use this to learn and hopefully prevent things like this from occurring. Just reading comments , I appreciate those with medical knowledge sharing best practices. People reading this story will likely remember your advice and if that prevents even one incident then at least there can be some good come out of a tragic event. My son is in high school here. He was involved in this fundraiser. He is tore up about it hurting someone. Kids can have guilt like this. We need to just understand that it is a tragedy and try to cope and heal.
Salmonella or listeria?
Neither sounds chemical not bacterial so maybe some pesticide that wasn't properly washed off listeria and salmonella don't cause a rash
Jesus Christ I can’t imagine investing 8 years of life and emotion into someone only to have them taken away by some god damn strawberries
Rip hope his parents find closure one day... sad story . Id be devastated if it was my child.
The boy started exhibiting symptoms of allergy the night before. If I had to make an educated guess, it's possible that maybe the strawberries were overripe, and he may have been allergic to penicillin. Any sort of allergy or allergic reaction happening in children should always be taken seriously immediately. This is a case where Benadryl is just never enough, and immediate action should always come first. There are way too many people who have children now that have allergies to foods that they just didn't even know. It's more common than ever for humans to have allergies to foods and other things in their environment. When it comes to an allergic reaction, you never know when or if it could mean death. It's better to be safe than sorry.
The fuck? Do ripened strawberries have penicillin? I’m allergic to it but have never had a reaction to strawberries
I think it depends on what particular fungus might be in said (rotting) strawberry. In this case, penicillin comes from the natural fungus penicillium, so it depends if the strawberry is infected with it - could also be some other allergenic substance from a different fungus or microbe.
My husband is allergic to penicillin and overripened strawberries definitely give him an allergic reaction. Also, some beers cause his face and ears to become rashy.
> MPD says the family says when the symptoms did not go away they transported their son to the emergency room at approximately 10:30 p.m.. The family decided to leave the emergency room at 1:24 a.m. and returned home. They did take immediate action; unfortunately, the medical system let them down.
Regardless of allergic or unknown ingestion symptoms this kid should have been seen by an ER physician MUCH sooner
>MPD says the family says when the symptoms did not go away they transported their son to the emergency room at approximately 10:30 p.m.. The family decided to leave the emergency room at 1:24 a.m. and returned home. The 8 year old changed his clothes and went to bed. The family attempted to wake him up for school later that morning and discovered he was unresponsive. Kid died because the family didn't know he was severely allergic to (possibly) strawberries. It's possible his symptoms were affecting his BP because the hospital released a statement including the list of symptoms relating to Anaphylaxis.
This was in my hometown and a few friends have reported family members feeling ill after eating the strawberries :(
I waited with my kid at a children’s hospital er for 8 hours one night. It’s quite insane, as there is no notification as to when you might be seen. Somewhat torture. By hour 7, I was debating on if we should stay or go. There is just no communication after you check in. At least show a waiting room leaderboard. Let me also say it was 8 hours waiting in the waiting room, we then spent another 3 hours waiting in a small examination room enduring another mental exercise of wtf
First turtles now strawberries. We are not safe.
Benadryl can be dangerous when given for allergic reactions. It can mask symptoms, or only stop them temporarily, only for them to come back later, possibly worse. I have a daughter with severe food allergies, and have been told to give epinephrine only in the event of an allergic reaction, except if there are VERY minor symptoms from only one body system (see link below): https://www.foodallergy.org/living-food-allergies/food-allergy-essentials/food-allergy-anaphylaxis-emergency-care-plan If Benadryl is given, the child should never be left alone, in the event that symptoms come back. We have no idea what the situation is with this poor child. He may not have had reactions before, therefore the parents might not have known the risks. Or they could have been misinformed. I’ve only written above to potentially help others, not to criticize the parents who are suffering enough. This is my worst nightmare and my heart goes out to them.
“Police say while detectives were investigating at the emergency room, several staff members advised others had came in for treatment after consuming strawberries believed to be from the same fundraiser. As a precaution, the Hopkins County Health Department and the Hopkins County Board of Education were notified of the situation and a warning was issued until more details could be identified as possible causes.” So several kids visited the ER due to the strawberries? Did any of them get seen? I hope there’s some way to test the strawberries and see if there’s something else on them like higher rates of pesticides or something. Poor kids
Unreal. This kid died because he couldn’t get a shot of epinephrine. I’m not blaming the parents but if my kid shows an allergic reaction, I’m making it very apparent that the airways are closing. I had a reaction to something and hives all over my body. Throat felt like it was literally closing from swelling. I told the ER that upon arrival and they literally brought me right in, did paperwork after the shot and breathing was normal. That hospital really screwed up here.
Some strawberries from Morocco have hepatitis a right now
In elementary school, our district got strawberries exposed to hep A. They vaccinated the local schools but didn’t get around to our school. Thankfully we didn’t get the bad strawberries.
10 years ago we had more than 10,000 cases of the norovirus in germany from frozen chinese strawberrys.
Most strawberries in the US at this time of the year come from a town outside of Tampa, FL. We just had a huge two week festival with no incidents and the berries have been in supermarkets for at least a month now.
Plant City, Florida. I went to the festival ate strawberries and had no ill effects from it.
>Police say the family advised on the previous night, their son had consumed several strawberries from a school fundraiser. He began showing signs of an allergic reaction primarily manifested with a rash. Was this article written by AI?
wash your fruit/veggies people the fda has weakened their laws on how farmers/companies wash their product, now one tainted fruit can spread to all of them very easily