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GENERAL PRACTICE: Joe Kai What worries parents when their preschool children are acutely ill, and why: a qualitative study BMJ 1996; 313: 983-986 [Abstract] [Full text]

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False alarm

Else Smits   (5 June 2001)

False alarm 5 June 2001
Else Smits, legal advisor to Dutch municipalities Holland - The Hague Send response to journal: Re: False alarm	My youngest son Tobias was only three days old when he was rushed to hospital with a life-threatening bacterial infection. Fortunately, he recovered and is now a very healthy three year old. The doctors did not know why he had become this ill. They said it was just bad luck. When he was in hospital he received the best of treatments, for which I am naturally very grateful. What the doctors forgot however, was how deeply this whole incident can affect a parent. Three years later I am still trying to come to terms with the threat of disease. Every fever, cough rings my alarm bells. Often without a need. I am now receiving cognitive behavioural therapy to try to learn to make the right distinction again between false alarm and when there is a real need to feel concerned about Tobias' health. My therapist tells me that obtaining the right information about symptoms like fever is one of the methods to bring everything back into perspective. The article by Joe Kai confirms this belief. Thank you. Else Smits