Charlie's Story
By Jill
Crystal, MN

Days after our son Charlie turned 1, he developed croup. When your child starts the barking cough, you know it's croup. I took him to an urgent care doctor who told me he doesn't have croup, it's just a cold and to go home. The next morning Charlie's temp is 103.9.

I took him to the closest ER to our house when the nurses who checked us in said he had croup, but the doctor said it's not croup, it's pneumonia and he needs x-rays. I told the doctor Charlie was having a hard time breathing and he had a really high temperature, but the doctor didn't seem to listen. The x-rays were awful.

Charlie was put in a vise to hold him still. He cried and screamed the whole time. The doctor came in and said it looks like pneumonia to me and gave us 2 prescriptions.

Later that same day, Charlie could hardly breath and you could tell swallowing hurt him. I took him to Children's ER in Minneapolis and it was the best decision I made. The doctor's actually listened to me and took their time to check him out thoroughly. Turns out Charlie did have croup, bad enough for him to stay in the short stay unit overnight. We were treated wonderfully there. Our nurse in the short stay unit was Caitlyn and she was great. She made Charlie's stay, which meant I stay too, as comfortable as possible.

We will never go anywhere else if an ER visit is required again. I have told everyone I know what happened to Charlie and to fight to get the doctor to listen to you. As parents we know our kids and we know when they are sick. Children's Hospital knows how to make them well again!!