Cases of atypical pneumonia are on the rise in Quebec and the North Shore is no exception. Sometimes misdiagnosed, affected children have to go to the emergency room more than once to understand what is happening.
This is the case for Amélie Emond Tremblay, a resident of Baie-Comeau, who alleges that she consulted the emergency rooms of Baie-Comeau and Forestville six times over a period of six weeks, from September 19 to September 1.is November.
Each time, she was sent home with her 4-year-old daughter Clara with “the wrong diagnosis,” she says.
Fever above 40 degrees, nosebleed lasting more than two hours, cough, heart rate higher than normal, difficulty breathing and even respiratory distress are among the list of symptoms Clara suffered during these six weeks.
Ms. Emond-Tremblay told the Manic not understanding why she left most of the time “into nothingness” during her medical visits.
“What made me the most angry was that we didn’t investigate further during my fifth visit and that we had to go to a sixth,” says the exhausted mother. “What would have happened if I had listened to the last doctor who told me it was just a virus? » she asks herself emotionally.
Timeline of events
September 18
Clara and her mother go to the emergency room at Le Royer hospital in Baie-Comeau late in the evening. The young girl is on her fourth day of fever. After eight hours of waiting, the mother decided to leave without seeing a doctor to go and rest.
September 19
Clara and her mother went to the Baie-Comeau hospital emergency room a second time during the night since the child had been bleeding from the nose for two and a half hours and she was on her fifth day of fever. According to the mother, she is told that she can give her daughter Tylenol and Advil and come back if there is no improvement in 72 hours.
September 22
Clara’s condition does not improve. They return to consult the same emergency room. The child has an X-ray of his lungs and the doctor on duty diagnoses pneumonia. He is prescribed an antibiotic called Amoxicillin for seven days.
October 22
Mrs. Emond Tremblay decides to go to the Forestville emergency room since her daughter’s cough is not getting any better and the fever has returned four days ago. According to her, the doctor told her that it was not pneumonia the last time, but rather bronchitis after analyzing the x-rays. The doctor reportedly declared that Clara would currently have pneumonia after a second x-ray. He is told that the child also has an ear infection. They leave with an antibiotic prescription called Clavulin for a period of seven days.
October 27
Clara’s fever has never stopped since her last visit on October 22. She returns to the Baie-Comeau emergency room and her daughter’s condition is “at its worst.” Her mother remembers that she had a pulse of 140 bpm and that she was struggling to breathe with a respiratory draw. “The doctor tells me that we don’t need to do an x-ray since, on October 22, there was no pneumonia and he adds that she doesn’t have an ear infection,” explains Amélie Emond Tremblay. He is told that it is probably a virus and that it was probably also another virus during his visit to Forestville. She leaves the hospital with a prescription for a Ventolin pump and even greater worry than when she arrived.
1is November
Clara’s condition is “even worse than October 27,” remembers the mother. She goes to Forestville and remembers that her daughter was breathing “very, very fast”. “I remember the panic of the staff,” she says. “They quickly placed her in a room with oxygen and a solution,” adds Ms. Emond Tremblay. “I was told that it was time for me to come and see her because she really wasn’t doing well. I remember the anger I felt at having heard this sentence after my six unsuccessful visits,” she concludes.
Clara was finally transferred to Baie-Comeau where she was hospitalized over a period of four days. The diagnosis of atypical pneumonia was finally made. Upon discharge, she was prescribed azithromycin and cefprozil. As of today, Clara is doing well, her mother reveals, happy to see her daughter getting back on track.
A PCR test accessible on the North Shore
“The analysis of Mycoplasma pneumonia is available in the laboratories of Sept-Îles and Baie-Comeau via an instrument acquired during the pandemic,” discloses the Deputy Directorate of Communications and Public Affairs of the Integrated University Health and Social Services Center of the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean (CIUSSS) to the newspaper Le Manic.
In addition to being accessible in the region, the analysis is carried out within 90 minutes when the laboratories open.
Since this disease is non-notifiable, it is not possible to know how many tests have been carried out and how many of these have been declared positive in the region.
At the CISSS de la Côte-Nord, we could not answer whether the doctors in the establishments turned to these tests when they were diagnosed with pneumonia.
