A terrified mum has claimed she was left waiting for 12 hours at A&E despite her son having multiple seizures and his lips turning blue.
Londoner Milla Sokolova said the experience was one of the scariest of her life after she attended Barnet Hospital in North London, on Sunday.
The 44-year-old took her non-verbal autistic son Noar to the emergency department after the six-year-old began fitting on the floor at their home and his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
The frightened mum called for an ambulance immediately where medics carried out an assessment and told her to take him to the paediatric emergency department.
But after arriving, coffee shop manager Milla says she was left waiting for half a day to be seen and even begged staff to see her son.
Doctors finally saw Noar at around 5am on Saturday morning who told her to give her son Calpol and Nurofen.
Milla said: "Last Friday night, my six year-old autistic son started to feel unwell. Coughing was on and off for a few weeks, but on Friday night he got a high fever and it was going up and down like a rollercoaster.
"On Saturday night, his fever got to 41, but after Calpol and a bit later, Nurofen it went down. I assumed that he had picked up the virus from his sister, who had been already on a course of antibiotics since Wednesday.
"On Sunday afternoon, after 3pm, my son had seizures caused by high fever, as it was the first one - it was the scariest experience of my life.
"When your child is not responding to his name, rolling his eyes, his lips are starting to turn bluish and he shakes in convulsions, you feel helpless.
"A thousand horrible thoughts are going through your mind.
"As my son is not very verbal and he could not tell me what was happening to him or if he was in any pain. His sister got very scared from what had been happening to her brother and was yelling out his name so loud that 999 staff could hear her.
"I must say that 999 responses were excellent, they were calming me down as I could not believe that it was happening and the ambulance arrived very promptly with a fantastic doctor who was very polite and patient.
"She was very understanding about my son's sensory needs. Few minutes later, another ambulance arrived with two more female doctors who also were amazing and finished the assessment of my child and brought us to Barnet Hospital, insisting that they advise us to go to A&E and to check everything.
"I had packed water, tissues, his favourite snacks, etc. in case we had to stay for a long time - judging by stories from news and media, but I had no idea that being brought by ambulance before 4pm [meant] we would be at home before 5am."
Milla added: "Other kids who came after us were seen and gone home. It was like they were leaving us a complicated case for later.
"There was another waiting room for the urgent care department, which was completely different, as there were only a few people waiting and huge clean toilets were in there with drinks jars on offer - we had stayed there only for four hours, the main waiting [time] was the horror waiting room for triage.
"The nurse only checked his temperature and blood pressure after I begged them to check on him as, by that point, it had been over seven hours of waiting and he was refusing to drink or eat anything. No antibiotics, I was told after 12 hours of waiting to give Calpol and Nurofen and call 999 if he feels worse again.
"I was told that if he doesn't vomit he probably doesn't need it and only call 999 if he gets worse."
The disgruntleed mum took to social media earlier this week to slam the long waiting time at the hospital.
She said: "Barnet Hospital was enormous disappointment yesterday.
"After being brought by amazing and prompt ambulance, my six years old autistic son had over 40 fever with seizures (and myself with horrible flu with 39.4 temperature) had waited over 12 hours to be seen by doctor.
"Try to avoid A&E, Barnet Hospital in particular, I know - I will. Stay safe and take great care."
A spokesperson for Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust told the Mirror: “We are sorry if Ms Sokolova and her son had a poor experience and we hope he is recovering well. Our emergency department at Barnet Hospital is incredibly busy, like all others across the NHS.
“Our staff are working hard to deliver the very best care and all patients, including children, are seen according to clinical need. If Ms Sokolova would like to contact us directly, then we would be happy to look into this matter for her.”
