Balch Family Blog

We took Carsten into the ER last night at Cardon’s in Mesa. We had seen the doctor earlier that day regarding an eye infection. His pediatrician thought it was sinusitis and to watch it for changes. We started him on an oral antibiotic. By the afternoon, the swelling had increased and spread to his upper eyelid. I called the office back and they recommended we head over to Cardon’s to have it checked out. When it comes to the eye you can never be too careful.

So we head down after Mark gets off work and check in about 8:00 pm. At 9:30 pm we saw triage. Then about midnight we were called back to the room. About 1:15 we were graced with the presence of the most arrogant and demeaning doctor we have ever met.

Dr. James McKown walked into our room and did not greet us for at least 1 min. At which time he began raising the bed and asked us if we were mom and dad. He never said hello to Carsten. He poked around him a bit and said this is nothing more than bacterial conjunctivitis. I started talking to him about what our pediatrician had said and pointing out the changes. He smirked at me and said that is nothing! While I am speaking to him a page comes over that he has a phone call. He starts walking for the door and I am in mid sentence and he says, “I have a phone call.” I was so pissed! No excuse me, I must take this, or I will be right back. JERK! So on his way out I told him I wanted a different doctor and he said there wasn’t one. I asked specifically about Dr. Mead, who was there when we arrived in our room. His response was, “He is sewing some kids up.” What I heard, and had been hearing, is what a waste of time this has been and he wouldn’t dare waste another doctor’s time on our ridiculous request.

Things got a little heated and we told him that he was rude and Mark even told him he was being and ass! I told him to go take his phone call. When he came back he apologized for our wait and how upset we were. I said that the wait was not why I was upset. I am not happy with his attitude and the way he personally treated us. Things got too much for me and I stepped out of the room. Mark continued speaking with him and I never spoke to the man again.

In addition to his rudeness and horrible attitude he had some fishy inconsistencies. When discussing treatment he said we could to a booster antibiotic shot IF WE WANTED. Mark and I said not to do it if it wasn’t going to help him. Then when we were confronting him about the differences in his diagnosis and our pediatricians he raised his voice and said we MUST GIVE THE SHOT IF WE WANTED TO HELP HIM. (A little different from the first time.) While I was out of the room he discussed other possibilities like running blood tests or doing IV antibiotics but Mark agreed to the booster shot. About 10 minutes later a nurse comes in to discharge him and gives a prescription for eye ointment. After she was done explaining everything I asked about the shot. Her response was the doctor was confused about that. WHAT!!!

Carsten got the shot and was discharged 35 minutes later. I read the discharge diagnosis and it indicated sinusitis, which is funny because he told us it was bacterial conjunctivitis.

Overall the experience was awful! We did not feel that our concern was taken seriously and we did not feel Dr. McKown was courteous or professional. We will never return to Cardon’s Children’s Hospital again.