Meddling Media

The media rarely get the whole story, and when they do, they even more rarely get it right. It wouldn't worry me so much if the media didn't get it right, but they've made things a lot more unpleaseant for me at work.

These headlines appeared in the local newspaper a couple of years ago in my home town "Child with meningitis waits four hours to see doctor." Needless to say, these headlines were on the front page, and the child in question was a child that I had looked after. If witholding the full story is to be considered a lie, then these guys were the biggest liars around.

I made sure the girl saw the emergency room doctor straight away. Of course we suspected she may have meningitis. The emergency room doc immediately consulted with his consultatant, who immediately began a course of the appropriate antibiotics. The girl was literally recieving antibiotic treatment for meningitis withing fifteen minutes of being admitted.

Unfortunately the children's ward was full, and the paediatric specialist was unable to see the girl for four hours, and so the child was left with us in the emergency room. When a bed was finally available in the children's ward, she was taken there and seen by the paediatrician, brining the total number of doctor's who had seen her now to three.

The family were not happy at having to wait four hours to see the paediatrician, and they made their displeasure obvious by writing to the paper. After saving this child's life, I would like to think that it was a miscommunication on the part of the family, that omitted to tell the newspaper that she had actually seen not just one, but two doctor's within minutes of arriving at hospital. I like to think it was an over-eager journalist desperate to make front page headlines. It doesn't matter who was to blame, because the result is the same. The day that story was printed, we ended up with a waiting room full of angry parents (children included) demanding to see the doctor, all convinced they had meningitis, and all certain that they needed to shout and be abusive as they were convinced we were not just useless, but neglegent.

The real story never got printed. The damage was done.