I was watching the news over dinner as usual and one of the features tonight was about a 7-year old child who died of Dengue. According to the story, the child had fever for a few days and was rushed to the hospital by her family. There, she was subjected to the usual CBC and her parents were told that the results were negative for Dengue. So they took her back home. Her fever persisted, however, so they took her to the same hospital where they were told that she had Dengue Stage 4. I'm not sure how long they waited before she was brought to the hospital a second time but the child's mother was very distraught and confused when interviewed by reporters.
Who wouldn't be??? One minute you're told your daughter doesn't have it...the next minute she's fighting for her life! The feature mentioned that the Dengue strain is different now. It's more dangerous and more intense. So what would you have done if you were the child's mother or father? Should she have been admitted the first time the doctors checked on her? As a mother, I know that because of the Dengue scare I shouldn't take it for granted when my kids have a fever. Both my girls got sick recently and I had both of them tested on the 2nd day of their fever. What did this girl's parents do wrong? Or was it the hospital who made a wrong diagnosis?
Whatever the real story is, it's so unfortunate that the child is now gone and the rest of us can only hope that we don't experience the same kind of heartache.
Remember...the Aedes Aegypti attacks in the daytime so it's best for children to stay indoors to avoid getting bitten. As for our kids who go to school, I guess the most we can do is to protect them by making them put on insect repellant before leaving the house. And in the event that they do catch the disease, it's important that parents are vigilant about the symptoms and never be complacent.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Who wouldn't be??? One minute you're told your daughter doesn't have it...the next minute she's fighting for her life! The feature mentioned that the Dengue strain is different now. It's more dangerous and more intense. So what would you have done if you were the child's mother or father? Should she have been admitted the first time the doctors checked on her? As a mother, I know that because of the Dengue scare I shouldn't take it for granted when my kids have a fever. Both my girls got sick recently and I had both of them tested on the 2nd day of their fever. What did this girl's parents do wrong? Or was it the hospital who made a wrong diagnosis?
Whatever the real story is, it's so unfortunate that the child is now gone and the rest of us can only hope that we don't experience the same kind of heartache.
Remember...the Aedes Aegypti attacks in the daytime so it's best for children to stay indoors to avoid getting bitten. As for our kids who go to school, I guess the most we can do is to protect them by making them put on insect repellant before leaving the house. And in the event that they do catch the disease, it's important that parents are vigilant about the symptoms and never be complacent.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
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