DRASTIC: Surgery was needed to remove the infection from the 12-year-old's toe. 16032015WCSUPTOE3
DRASTIC: Surgery was needed to remove the infection from the 12-year-old's toe. 16032015WCSUPTOE3
A Wanganui father is unhappy that his son ended up having surgery on an infected toe - surgery he says could have been avoided with a correct diagnosis.
The father said his 12-year-old son had a mild intellectual disability and Asperger's syndrome which meant he could not express himself that well.
"We took him to hospital by ambulance on March 3 as the toe was very black and swollen," the father told the Chronicle.
"The ambulance staff agreed with me that it might have been caused by a bite or an object lodged inside."
They were seen at Whanganui Accident and Emergency.
"The doctor we saw at the hospital said he didn't believe it was a whitetail spider or other type of bite because there were no sign of scratches or an entry point. He said it felt like a simple verruca and it was nothing to worry about. When I expressed concern about the extent of the swelling, he assured me that that happened with verrucas and it would go down in a few days.
"He said I could visit our GP to have it removed."
When the swelling and the blackened area had become worse, and his son's toe had reddened considerably by the following Friday, the father took his son to their GP who advised him to take him to hospital immediately.
"The registrar at the hospital ordered an X-ray to make sure there was nothing embedded in the toe - she called the consultant and they both said they didn't see how the infection could have been mistaken for a verruca.
"They were concerned that the infection could reach the bone and immediately administered a local anaesthetic and opened the toe to remove the infection. I was told that if antibiotics had been administered at the first hospital visit, it was unlikely to have got that bad and I'm annoyed that my son had to go through the pain and trauma unnecessarily."
The father said he had made a complaint to the Whanganui District Health Board and had been told that the complaint had been "advanced".
"My concerns are that a doctor could make such a misdiagnosis and that he had a trainee doctor working with him at the time," the father said.
"Ideally I would like a meeting with the doctor and his head of department - I hope another family won't need to go through this kind of stress and another child will not have to experience pain like my my son endured."