PEDIATRICS Vol. 87 No. 1 January 1991, pp. 80-81
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Daddy MD

Jeffrey R. Avner MD1

1 From the Division of General Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

It's been almost two years since the weekend my daughter couldn't breathe.

It started Thursday evening with a runny nose and low-grade fever, not unlike the times she's had colds before. Even when she developed the barking cough, which heralded the onset of the croup, we weren't concerned. We had seen this many times with other children and knew that it was uncommon for a child with croup to be seen in the emergency room. Still, before we went to bed that night we turned on the intercom in Arly's room; it was the first time we'd used it in a year.

By three in the morning we were awakened by Arly's harsh breathing, which seemed to vibrate the entire apartment. We went to her room. She was only half asleep because she was working so hard to breathe. My wife, Rhonda, carried Arly into the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the shower. During my pediatric residency I had given many of my clinic patients' parents the same advice. Arly got only a little better. We didn't take her to the emergency room that night, even though if she had been someone else's child I would have admitted her. Perhaps I was afraid her condition would improve after the car drive to the emergency room and my fellow residents would think I was overreacting. You would think doctors would be more attuned to the dangers of their children's illnesses, yet, all too often, we wait too long.

Submitted on December 27, 1989
Accepted on January 17, 1990