Doctor with IQ lacking EQ shocking lack of patient care

Our 16 month old granddaughter has had a shocking 24 hours, burning a fever all of last night, trying our best to break it, we watched her detoriate further this morning and decided to go to Bedford Gardens Emergency, leaving our extended family at a prescheduled Father's Day luncheon mid-way through as we were extremely worried and concerned about her continued burning fever and frightening lethargy.

Dr E. Gordon's practice at the Bedford Gardens hospital deals with all emergency cases entering their doors. Today we had the great misfortune of having the lady herself on call. Her absolute lack of patient bedside manner, her disgusting, abrupt and rude attitude and her utter apathy and disdain for people in general makes me wonder why she became a Doctor in the first place. 'First do no harm' may be the oath she took and an IQ would have been essential to qualify as a Doctor but she missed the tutorials on EQ, patient empathy, tolerance, compassion and the right of every patient to be treated with dignity and respect. Clearly a woman with a 'God' complex, her little empire she runs within the hospital is her domain and she presides over it with a supercilious, narcissistic, condensing attitude.

My daughter, daughter in law and I came to her practice with a very pale, very feverish, very sick baby girl. Obviously frightened, concerned and stressed we asked all the right questions whilst signing in . One of which was to inform the admissions clerk that our baby's pediatrician consulted at their hospital and should our baby need admitting, we asked if it was standard practice to call her as our baby is her patient. A perfectly reasonable question from frightened young parents. Dr E. Gordon's first sentence upon waking into the the paed room we were waiting in to be seen was to say' our staff will not admit your baby'. What purpose did that serve and why did she feel the need to be so aggressive with two concerned parents and a worried Grandmother is beyond me. After an initial consultation without any explanations etc. we endured a 4 hour long wait in that room with almost no nursing staff contact until eventually Dr E. Gordon bothered to advise us that the hospital on call paed Dr Strong would be see our little one once he arrived at the hospital. She didn't bother with any possible ETA. We felt like we were actually annoying her by just being there. Her eye rolling and body language spoke volumes about her feelings on the matter of ill little baby McKenzie. Not unfami**** with hospital protocols I knew that Dr Strong would probably be doing ward rounds around 6pm.

Suffice to say we were left for hours without any update, observations etc with a feverish, crying, distressed baby in a room without any nursing or doctor contact unless we went out into the passage to ask for updates etc.

At a point, Dr E. Gordon came into the room and very sarcastically addressed my distressed daughter and told her that the paed would be coming to see her baby but again with no timeframe. She did not once, even look at our baby girl to see how she was faring.

Enter Dr Strong who took the time to greet us personally, quickly and effectively assess the situation, attend to our little one with care, compassion and medical throughousness. Dr Strong took the time to explain all the symptoms our baby was presenting, explaining to us what was in fact happening to her, how she was feeling as she doesn't have the vocabulary to explain herself, further explaining the severity of the viral influenza strain currently causing havoc across Gauteng. He took the time to tell us that two junior schools in the area had been closed down yesterday due to this viral strain. He addressed each of us in the room, made eye contact with each of us, answered our questions, asked if we had any others, explained his recommended treatment protocol, explained how we could reach him if our little girl didn't improve overnight and then shook each one of our hands, making eye contact at all times, before leaving the room.

Dr E. Gordon could definitely benefit from watching an empathic Doctor like Dr Strong deal with both a sick patient and distressed family members. I will be telling everyone I know about her non existent bedside manner. I will ensure that everyone I know is told that should you need medical help, not to take your chances at Dr E. Gordon's ER at the Life Healthcare Hospital Bedford Gardens. Life Administrators, perhaps you should spend some time in this particular ER experiencing the lack of patient care, lack of respect and lack of basic human rights that permeates this practice and negatively represents your Brand.

Thank you Doctor Strong for restoring my faith in doctor patient care, for taking the time to show You care, for treating my family and I with respect, compassion, dignity and as parents and people.

First do no Harm is a phrase that encompasses physical and emotional patient care. Doctor E. Gordon would do well to revisit this oath she took.

Leaving the hospital tonight I made my family promise me never to take me to Dr E. Gordon's ER should I ever need medical assistance. Patients deserve empathy, physical and emotional support and the best medical care. You won't find that if you have the unfortunate experience of needing help while Dr E Gordon is on call.