Car Seat Malfunction

[Aelwynn]

This is a rant of my frustrations for the last two days. My daughter was admitted to the hospital Oct. 14th, and released Oct 15th.

So, there we were getting ready to take the girls out to the pool and/or dinner. We had all the baby bags packed, Peyton in the carseat (about 2.5 months old now) and Kenzie (2.5 yrs, temper tantrum stage) tugging on my arm. Took us the usual 45minutes to get ready to leave, no biggie right.

I turn to ask my hubby which we are going to do first. I suggest dinner, since we were all hungry and we could swim anytime. My hubby goes to pick up the carseat...he pulls the arm into lock position, I see and heard it lock. Which is easy enough to do, and once it's locked it's not supposed to unlock unless you hit both buttons on the side simultaneously. Makes sense right?

Apparently not. This is by far the stupidest thing I've ever seen. So hubby goes to lift up the car seat, the handles are locked. He gets about 2 steps towards the hotel door, when ONE side unlocks.

Now let me try to explain this for ya all. ONE side of the car seat arm unlocks. They both lock simultaneously. We've used this car seat for a good long while. Used it for my eldest when she was this age too. Never had this problem before when it suddenly unlocks on one arm only.

So my daughter lands right on her head! I freak out and I'm all checking her to make sure she's okay. I see a big bruise the size of my fist on her head, so I panic and we take her to the hospital. I've never had to take any of my kids to the hospital before. We get there and tell them what happened. Military hospital by the way.

I'm like she landed on her head, showed them the car seat, and we go to sit down to wait to be seen. Makes sense right? Apparently not to the emergency room doctors.

We waited 5 hours to be seen. 5 hours with my daughter screaming her head off, a huge ass bruise on her head, and my eldest running rampant around the emergency waiting area. We were put behind sprained ankle on a 5 yr old, fever on a 9 yr old, a woman that stubbed her toe...the list goes on. Imagine how pissed off I was. I know what happens when a baby falls, I know it's a potentially serious thing. I was worried she'd need a shunt and would just die while I was holding her there waiting.

We finally get seen, they do the cat scan - turns out she has a very small fracture on the right bottom side of her head, where she landed. They tell us she's going to stay overnight, and that they are surprised that it wasn't more serious.

Apparently the car seat we own, there have been a lot of cases involving the arm breaking like that and kids falling. They said if the hotel floor was covered in carpet, and not concrete (fucking hotel I swear) that she wouldda been fine. So we went through the paperwork to file a complaint, one of the hundreds in the database, about the carseat.

Ok here's some really fucked up things, a little more detail...chronological order.

- I'm holding my daughter, and I don't see my hubby go through the door with Pey. No one sitting there even tells me he went through the door and left me. Not a fucking word. For 45 minutes, so I'm just standing around right. How did I find him? I ran around the hospital looking for him, and he finally found me wandering the hallways. He was apparently looking for me too.

- Takes 5 hours to be seen, once we are seen everytime they do something new...from checking her vitals to looking at the ctscan, takes 2 hours each. Imagine being in a hospital room with 2 kids screaming for over 12 hours and you're STILL waiting to get a room.

- I went back to go do the cat scan, I went through the automatic door right. I stupidly forget that I left my purse on the other side of the door. So I go out, go to go back through the door and no one will let me through!! So I try another door that's wide open. They let me through, then my hubby turns me and is like "where's my wallet, I left it by your purse". GAH! I almost smacked him, but witnesses and all.

So I go back right. Go to go back through the door, same door that I went through before. Bitch nurse (will forever be noted as Bitch Nurse since she did a lot of shit) tells me I can't go through there! WTF. I JUST went through there! So carrying all our stuff and our eldest, which I swear she wears 30 lbs, I go to the front desk to wait in line to be buzzed in (thinking wtf, I'm going to get lost AGAIN!).

Only chick in front of me is sorting through her purse, and can't find her ID. Mind you I waited a good 3 minutes, before I stepped next to her and rudely asked to be buzzed in.

- They are taking my daughter's vitals. Bitch Nurse brought a newbie with her. Didn't ask us if it was okay to experiment on MY daughter, but w/e. She starts explaining how to take a temperature through my daughter's butt. My ears start burning, I'm like did I hear that right?! Bitch Nurse says "Usually we don't do this, but because you are learning I will show you. You lift up the legs, and insert the..." I don't let her continue. I yell loudly "That is not going in there! Take her temperature another fucking way! Hell fucking no! Do it another way!"

Of course, I get the "look". Bitch Nurse goes, "Fine, just write down that the MOTHER (added with a sneer and a dirty look) said not to do an anal temperature taking." By the way when we went up to PICU (Pediatrics Intensive Care Unit) they told us the anal temperature taking is really outdated and they no longer do it in the hospital at all because babies intestines are super small, and the thermometer sometimes gets shoved up there too far. (Shouldda seen this thermometer, it was fucking long!)

- We get three social workers coming in asking us tons of questions. Bitch Nurse sent them, they tell us so. They ask why I refused the thermometer that way, etc. Simple response "stuff comes out, not in...I won't let you instrumentally rape my daughter". They don't like that answer, you see the looks in between them. They grill us! Seriously grilling, to find out if we abuse her. I tell them everything from her allergy to soy touching her skin, to how she likes to be held and how often during the day.

They don't like my answers, because I obviously don't abuse my kid. They tell us they are going to monitor her over night and make sure she's not abused! They don't believe us that both of our girls have never been to the hospital before besides random checkups. I try to show them our records, and let them to do it on their own. So they wanna monitor her, and make sure we haven't had this happen before. Fine, but the stuff is right there. You don't need 24 hours to get more information, cause it's sitting RIGHT THERE!

Fine w/e, do what you want, I don't abuse my kid and hopefully she will be monitored enough so that if anything does happen (such was the original plan) they will know what to do.

- She gets out within 4 hours of being put in the PICU. Why you ask? Because apparently the fracture (which I never got to see the ctscan, and neither did hubby, so we dunno what it looks like) wasn't big enough to cause concern and she was acting like a completely normal baby. What do they tell me about taking care of her? Give her baby tylenol. That's right you heard me, the thing I wouldda personally given her, they prescribe for us.

So that's all. I'm pretty pissed off about the whole thing. I was even pissed at hubby, blaming him for a while cause of it. I know I shouldn't of, but after they told me about the fracture I started to choke his ass. I lost my cool, and kept repeating that he broke my baby while sobbing uncontrollably. Completely not like me, but it was my baby and I was hysterical at that point.

In all it's been stressful. Pey is doing great. After the PICU we were there like 4 hours, and they said she could go home because there wasn't anything that would help except rest. She gets her tylenol and I watch her like a hawk. So far no puking or anything unusual. So all in all, she had a fracture, and all that shit we went through was for nothing. All those little things I mention really piss me infuriate me. She couldda died while they were jacking off.

We got a new car seat. Even got a new double stroller so it would make it easier to move the kids around. Before we would put Pey in the car seat and carry her down to the car, or put her on our shoulder if one of us had free room.

For now we're just watching and waiting. If anything happens I'm dialing 911 and saying fuck it to the Military hospitals from now on. I hate that damn place. Now I just gotta get my mom to stop laughing at me for freaking out so much. Apparently this happens a lot, just never to us before.

All in all, my question is...if this is what I went through...a non-abusing mother. How the fuck do OTHER people get away with it?! I don't even abuse my kids, and I went through hell. So how do some of these twatmuffins get away with 6-7 times being in a hospital?

[Dark Star]

Jesusfuckingchrist Wynn that sucks. I am glad the baby is alright. Keep us posted on her condition.

[Aelwynn]

Um so far...since the 15th, meaning she's been back with me a day and a half. She is a little slower to smile and giggle. I think it's the tylenol affecting her. Her swelling went way down. It's almost gone. I see a little blue mark still, but nothing too too big like before.

So basically, the hospital was a waste of time and she wouldda be fine on her own. -.- At least we know what's wrong with her.

Oh and she cries all the frickin time, no matter what. I think it's the pain.

AH! The car seat is by Eddie Bauer. It's brown padded seat cushion with darker brown square stitching. Don't use it. ;P

[Silvahalo]

I was wondering how old is the car seat? I believe if you look under the seat a sticker should be posted indicating up to what date it is safe to use the car seat. Also, always register your car seat. Updates on safety issues and recalls can be emailed or mailed to you. Sounds like the car seat was a defective model type to begin with and lucky it didn't happen to your first.

Poor sweetie and poor you going through all that shit...damn. Screaming kids for 12 hours that will push any ones buttons...how did you cope?

I am so glad she is healing...kisses. She's in my prayers.

[Sister Iroz]

I am so sorry your first experience with a hospital visit for something that could have been serious was like this. Personally, I would be writing a complaint to someone at the hospital especially about the wait you had before your baby was seen. A head injury can be very serious and they should have taken her right back. I've also been told if their is swelling on the outside of the head (bump) that's good because if not swelling would be inside the head.

My prayers are with you all and hope she continues to improve.

[Aelwynn]

The catseat is a year old. I used an older one on my eldest before I replaced that one with this one. I wanted a safer car seat and one that can be used on air planes. Our old one couldn't be brought on a plane.

The hospital even said it was okay before we left when Peyton was a newborn. There were no recalls. Only recalls on a slightly different model on this one, and we had the chief of medicine at the hospital okay it. So everything was checked out about 2.5 months ago. It takes a lot to get a kid outta a military hospital, so they make sure you have car seats and everything else up to "code".

I think because this is a completely different hospital from where she was born at, that they are slightly more advanced and more strict on procedures. The hospital here looks a lot better than the one she was born in, and the staff "upstairs" is a lot nicer. I think that might be a factor for them clearing the car seat when it's obviously got problems.

I am a member of the military car seat foundation thing. I've seen a lot of recalls thus far, but not on our model. They even continue to sell it on base. Lots of people are complaining about it, the hospital said it might take a while for them to get around to recalling it. But for now to get a new one (if I wasn't gonna already).

How did I cope? I took my eldest into the bathroom and let her run wild for a while. I also let her play with some really long q-tips for about 3 hours. That entertained her for a while. Otherwise I just my best not to lose my temper.

For my youngest I kept saying really loudly "Great the 5 yr old with a sprained ankle goes in front of a head injury on a newborn! If my daughter dies while I'm standing here, I'm suing the shit outta all of you." Insert random injury for the 5 yr old. We were passed a lot, even though we showed up and no one was in line.

I read a lot of stories about babies here having brain injuries etc. I was worried about them having to put a shunt in her head. (Was that Jaded that said that?) I kept telling them to admit us already that we were more important than a fucking stubbed toe.

I'd call and complain but since it's a military facility run by civilians, there really isn't much hope for anything. If I complain there are a few outcomes: hubby gets into trouble, we get more shit the next time we take the girls in for anything (same building, same doctors), or nothing is done. I kinda wish I could complain, but we really have no say.

I think your prayers worked actually. I've been trying to get her to sleep for a good 14 hours now. As soon as I read your thing, she passed out on my shoulder. Thank god. I just wish they couldda done something more for her, ya know? Besides just saying, hey take her home and give her some tylenol. Wasn't very helpful at all.

Side note: Every other word outta my mouth to the doctors was, hemorrhaging. I kept worrying she was hemorrhaging and needed a shunt. I was freaking out so bad my hubby had to stay the night and I had to take my eldest home. There's no amount of "calm down" that will make a mom calm down when her baby is hurt and crying.

[Kitty]

Best wishes Aelwynn, Hope the baby is feeling better soon, excellent control on allowing the hubby and Bitch Nurse to live.. =)

[Jaded]

Waaaaaaaaaaaay back, when my oldest one was a baby...we had one of those type of car seats. One side of the handle broke loose from the base and she fell out on her head. Ever since that incident, I have always used 2 hands to carry a seat like that...one on the handle and one on the bottom. The grandson was in one for about 6 months....I winced every time I picked him up.

Hope your little one gets to feeling better soon. :)

[Aelwynn]

Motrin is godly. I wanna thank ya all for giving me tips on what to do. The Motrin knocked her right out so now she's sleeping her normal sleep times. I don't over-use it though. I only use it when she looks like she's in a lot of pain. I completely stopped using the baby Tylenol. Like ya all said, it was like frickin water. When I stopped using it, the was no good or bad change. She stayed the same. So it wasn't doing shit.

I took her in for her checkup today. She is healing perfectly. I told them about the Motrin, and they said it was a good idea. I guess they just forgot to tell me. The swelling is completely gone. Which is good. So no more swelling and the fracture is healing. They still won't show me the ctscans.

I took some pictures of the paperwork and stuff. For the curious. I also took some pictures of her head the day I posted this. I'll try to upload them soon.

[Gilbrit]

So relieved to hear the Motrin allowed for little Peyton to get some much needed rest.
Sleep and water were always my fall backs for my daughters when they were little.
Never used baby tylenol, always kept ibuprofen around.
When they were young couldn't afford both so I went with ibuprofen.
From your results, it looks like I made the right choice.

[OMalley]

I would've been freaking out too; probably would've made a huge nasty scene (probably more than one!) in the hospital. I think it's terrible what they put you through. It doesn't seem right at all that they made you wait so long.

Eddie Bauer would NOT want to be on the receiving end of what I'd be giving out to them, via phone, email, and online reviews of the product.

SO glad to hear your baby is OK!

[DeziDoo]

How scary! Glad she is okay! We had a bleeding head incident on Sunday and had the paramedics at our house. My 3-year-old fell backward and hit his head on a windowsill. That is worst feeling when something happens to your child!

I'm all about Motrin. It seems to us that it works faster than Tylenol. Tylenol seems to work a little longer but for quicker results we do Motrin.

Hope she is feeling well today. :hug: