Irresponsibility Rears Its Ugly Head Again

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Yes, and this time it cost the life of a 12 year old. The Daily Mail headline reads: Boy, 12, dies after GPs refuse to make house call, telling mother to 'give him paracetamol' The article disclosed: [u]A boy of 12 died after doctors refused to make a house call - and told his mother to give him paracetamol. Daniel Farr had been vomiting continuously and could barely stand after he was struck down by a mystery illness, yet out-of-hours GPs ignored his anxious mother's plea for help. Rosemary Farr demanded answers from the weekend service. 'Daniel could still be alive if one of the doctors had come out to see him,' she said. The normally fit and healthy schoolboy, from Reading, had started being sick after going to a friend's birthday party on Friday. 'At first I thought it might have been something he had eaten or that it was that winter vomiting virus that is going around,' his mother said. 'The sickness continued into Saturday morning and he also started complaining that his sides hurt and he had pains in his chest.' Mrs Farr, 51, rang her GP practice but it was closed for the weekend so her call was patched through to the WestCall operations centre. She was told to leave a message for a doctor to call her back. She said: 'I waited over one hour for someone to call me back and then I was just told that the pain in his side and chest was probably caused by the vomiting. 'They said he had probably pulled a small muscle and advised me to give him paracetamol. I just trusted that they would know best so I followed their advice.' Later Daniel collapsed on the stairs as he tried to make his way to the bathroom, and mother-of-three Mrs Farr rang WestCall again at 2pm. After another hour and half delay a doctor called back. 'I told him Daniel was no better and asked him to visit. He said they did not do home visits and told me if I was that concerned I should take him to the hospital myself. 'We don't have a car and we didn't think he was well enough to be driven-anywhere.' Mrs Farr stayed up all night with her son as he struggled to breathe. For a while he seemed to be improving but suddenly he stopped breathing, 36 hours after he had been taken ill. [/u] I just have 2 views here: The doctors (GP): Why are the doctors so irresponsible here? Where is their professionalism here? The parents: I do not know and understand them, for if I were them I would have gotten the child to the hospital by ambulance. Did they have an oversight here? Perhaps, it is because of the lax attitude of their doctor? Again, is the doctor in question more guilty here? This is such a sad way to begin 2009 and to think that humanity is improving with times. Yet, it is telling otherwise and so harsh that such attitudes actually could cost lives. Ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1106947/Boy-12-dies-GPs-refuse-make-house-telling-mother-paracetamol.html