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There's no emergency now, thank goodness, but I was wondering this for the future. I recently took my daughter to the Wake Med children's ER for a cut chin, and they were great, but we didn't know if we should drive to Duke or Wake Med. Just wondering about general opinions/experiences of others. In a REAL emergency I would probably call an ambulance or go to the nearest ER which is Cary Wake Med, but it's good to know where to go for less urgent matters like a cut needing stitches.
Anecdotal, I know, but I have had two terrible experiences at Wake Med in Cary.
Once, my son had nursemaids elbow. He needed the doc to manipulate it back in place. First thing they did was get a full set of xrays, chaching. Then, they proceeded to tell me they think he broke a bone in his arm, but the xray did not show it. The next thing I know, they are wheeling in the cast cart. They give my kid some pain reliever, which he fights to take, and in the process, low and behold, his elbow pops back in place and he is as good as new.
The doc got PO'd because we would not let her put a cast on and questioned her misdiagnosis.
Anyhow. we had to sign a waiver to leave. Needless to say, we would opt to go to Duke or UNC next time.
I wouldn't take my kid to Wake Med Cary either (though I have gone there myself and been fine) - but have heard great things about "Big" WakeMed's Children's ER in Raleigh. That's where my pediatrician recommends.
Of course, we're much closer to that than to Duke; I don't know if Duke has a separate children's ER, or if we lived mid-way in between, which one I'd choose.
My kids have gone to Wake Med Chidlrens ER a few times. They have always been wonderful to us. I avoid the regular ER there at all cost, but the Kids ER is great.
We recently spent 6 days at WakeMed with one of our kids, including 4 days in PICU. We live within a mile from Rex (which I have had nothing but good experiences at), but the ambulance took her to WakeMed since the pediatric trauma docs are there and they wanted her there in case she needed surgery.
I agree that, once you get to the hospital, they run down every slight issue as it if is a real issue, but I guess they have to do that to be very extra careful. For example, in our case, although she had serious internal injuries, there was not really any outside injury, except one small scrap on her knee. Because of it, they wanted to give her a tetanus shot, saying it was "protocol" with all open wounds coming through ER. But overall, we were very happy with all the care we received there, ER and the extended stay, and the care we continue to receive from the WakeMed pediatric trauma docs....as she is still recovering!
I will say that when the ambulance got there, they went to the regular ER, and not the pediatric ER. Not sure why. It was not very crowded at either.
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