Enough time has now passed so that I am now pulled together enough to write this post as a warning to other families traveling to Disney World.
This past October, on the last day of our trip to the World, our youngest daughter (3 years old) was rushed to the emergency room because she was having trouble breathing. (She had a respiratory illness that brought on some sort of asthma-type attack, although she had no history of anything like this before.) To try and make a very long story short, we first tried to take her via cab to a walk-in clinic that the Grand Floridian (where we were staying) directed us to. When we got there, however, it was closed. At that point, my daughter also started to become critical. Luckily, we still had the cab that rushed us to the Celebration Emergency Room. Celebration was wonderful (and I wouldn't hesitate to go there again).
EXCEPT, Celebration does not have a pediatric ward. When it became clear that my daughter was going to have to be admitted, Celebration told us that they were going to transfer her to their sister-hospital, Florida Hospital, which had a brand-new Disney sponsored pediatric pavilion. Celebration said that they thought she would likely be out in 24 hours but that they needed to admit her as a precaution.
So we were transferred to Florida Hospital via ambulance in the middle of the night and arrived there around 4 a.m. We did not see a doctor until 4 p.m.! More than 12 hours later! I was pissed and started to wonder about the quality of treatment (especially because we really had no idea what was happening at that point), but figured that it wasn't worth trying to get her transferred to another hospital if she was going to be out in 24 hours anyway. Well, she deteriorated even more at Florida and we ended up spending 4 nights there. The doctors wanted her to stay another night but at that point we realized we needed to get her out of there since she was now stable enough and our doctors back home were starting to become concerned about the level of her care there.
In the end, if I ever am faced with a similar situation, I will demand that I am taken to Arnold Palmer's Children Hospital (or even the new one that just opened near the airport). I will NEVER go back to Florida Hospital again.
Hopefully no reader on here will ever need to heed this advice, but I wanted to pass along our experience in case anybody is in a similar situation. I'm still kicking myself for not listening to my gut that first day we were at Florida Hospital and I'm just hoping that my daughter does not have any lasting effects from the experience.
This past October, on the last day of our trip to the World, our youngest daughter (3 years old) was rushed to the emergency room because she was having trouble breathing. (She had a respiratory illness that brought on some sort of asthma-type attack, although she had no history of anything like this before.) To try and make a very long story short, we first tried to take her via cab to a walk-in clinic that the Grand Floridian (where we were staying) directed us to. When we got there, however, it was closed. At that point, my daughter also started to become critical. Luckily, we still had the cab that rushed us to the Celebration Emergency Room. Celebration was wonderful (and I wouldn't hesitate to go there again).
EXCEPT, Celebration does not have a pediatric ward. When it became clear that my daughter was going to have to be admitted, Celebration told us that they were going to transfer her to their sister-hospital, Florida Hospital, which had a brand-new Disney sponsored pediatric pavilion. Celebration said that they thought she would likely be out in 24 hours but that they needed to admit her as a precaution.
So we were transferred to Florida Hospital via ambulance in the middle of the night and arrived there around 4 a.m. We did not see a doctor until 4 p.m.! More than 12 hours later! I was pissed and started to wonder about the quality of treatment (especially because we really had no idea what was happening at that point), but figured that it wasn't worth trying to get her transferred to another hospital if she was going to be out in 24 hours anyway. Well, she deteriorated even more at Florida and we ended up spending 4 nights there. The doctors wanted her to stay another night but at that point we realized we needed to get her out of there since she was now stable enough and our doctors back home were starting to become concerned about the level of her care there.
In the end, if I ever am faced with a similar situation, I will demand that I am taken to Arnold Palmer's Children Hospital (or even the new one that just opened near the airport). I will NEVER go back to Florida Hospital again.
Hopefully no reader on here will ever need to heed this advice, but I wanted to pass along our experience in case anybody is in a similar situation. I'm still kicking myself for not listening to my gut that first day we were at Florida Hospital and I'm just hoping that my daughter does not have any lasting effects from the experience.