IF ever there was proof that it pays to seek a second opinion, it was experienced by the family of Nicholas Boyd, who is recovering in a Wollongong hospital after an encounter with a stingray.
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The outcome for the young man could have been a lot worse if not for the persistence of his parents who knew the initial and then secondary examination and treatment offered by the hospital after an accident on the river was not working.
After coming to grief while being towed behind a boat on a bodyboard, Nicholas was taken to Shoalhaven Hospital with a badly swollen knee. At that point, he probably should have been given an X-ray. When he fronted for the second visit with his knee in an even worse state, he definitely should have been X-rayed.
His GP’s insistence that an urgent X-ray be conducted probably prevented the young man’s ordeal from being worse than it already was. The discovery of a stingray barb was unlikely to have been on anyone’s radar – let’s face it, the odds of landing on one in such circumstances is remote – but the signs all indicated something was seriously wrong.
The Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District has done the right thing by ordering a review into just how the warning signs were not seen by hospital staff. The outcome of that review should see a sharpening of procedures for cases where symptoms are not responding to treatment.
In the meantime, the lesson that should be learned by everyone who is seeking treatment or has a family member who is, if the condition is worsening seek a second and if necessary third opinion.
