Hospital Experience Yesterday

[concerned]

So my 6 year old daughter fell and hurt her elbow yesterday in the playground, my wife called the emergency number, available hospitals in the area nearby were suggested and we picked the first one available. Initially we thought it was just a bruise, but an X-RAY showed a compound fracture in her elbow...

It was then that the nightmare scenario began to unfold... The doctor said he could re-align the joint/bone immediately, to which I said ok lets do this, and asked you will be using anesthesia for this to which he said no....He also said the procedure would only take about 5 seconds...
I balked at this, suggested we try somewhere else, to which he replied, General anesthesia would be needed, and other Hospitals were also unlikely to use anesthesia for this re-alignment... He asked what we wanted to do, my wife just went into a panic, and I would say hardly 15 seconds went by when he asked a second time, what do you want to do?? It was hardly as if there was a line of people outside the door waiting on him, we were the only ones at this hospital at this time...

My Daughter was in quiet a bit of distress at this stage with the pain, considering it was getting later in the evening, it was the GW holiday, and based on what this doctor had told us, we decided to proceed with this...

She was taken into a room, with about 4 other medical staff in total (I guess 3 of them were going to hold her down..). Neither my wife or myself were allowed in the room...
I could hear my daughter crying out loud though the door while they did this procedure without anesthesia. They then put her arm in a cast, and she did feel better after this... One of the nurses who was in this room afterwards said my daughter behaved very well, basically was very courageous...

Talking to my wife a bit more about this today, she mentioned that there are cases in Japan; an example being childbirth where use of anesthesia is frowned upon/not really respected by hospital staff...

The more I think about this today, the angrier I am getting...A search on the internet of compound fractures and their treatment in Japan says that anesthesia should be used in their treatment... Adjectives such as "intense/Sharp" pain are used to describe the pain associated with them, I can only barely guess at the pain my daughter experienced considering she was in this state, and they then manually re-align the bones/joint while she was in this state...

Ben mentioned the other day, that medical treatment varies quite a bit in Japan and it's best to shop about for the better ones, I would say to anyone, particularly with Children that you do this checking in advance to avoid the situation we ended up in...

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

So my 6 year old daughter fell and hurt her elbow yesterday in the playground, my wife called the emergency number, available hospitals in the area nearby were suggested and we picked the first one available. Initially we thought it was just a bruise, but an X-RAY showed a compound fracture in her elbow...

It was then that the nightmare scenario began to unfold... The doctor said he could re-align the joint/bone immediately, to which I said ok lets do this, and asked you will be using anesthesia for this to which he said no....He also said the procedure would only take about 5 seconds...
I balked at this, suggested we try somewhere else, to which he replied, General anesthesia would be needed, and other Hospitals were also unlikely to use anesthesia for this re-alignment... He asked what we wanted to do, my wife just went into a panic, and I would say hardly 15 seconds went by when he asked a second time, what do you want to do?? It was hardly as if there was a line of people outside the door waiting on him, we were the only ones at this hospital at this time...

My Daughter was in quiet a bit of distress at this stage with the pain, considering it was getting later in the evening, it was the GW holiday, and based on what this doctor had told us, we decided to proceed with this...

She was taken into a room, with about 4 other medical staff in total (I guess 3 of them were going to hold her down..). Neither my wife or myself were allowed in the room...
I could hear my daughter crying out loud though the door while they did this procedure without anesthesia. They then put her arm in a cast, and she did feel better after this... One of the nurses who was in this room afterwards said my daughter behaved very well, basically was very courageous...

Talking to my wife a bit more about this today, she mentioned that there are cases in Japan; an example being childbirth where use of anesthesia is frowned upon/not really respected by hospital staff...

The more I think about this today, the angrier I am getting...A search on the internet of compound fractures and their treatment in Japan says that anesthesia should be used in their treatment... Adjectives such as "intense/Sharp" pain are used to describe the pain associated with them, I can only barely guess at the pain my daughter experienced considering she was in this state, and they then manually re-align the bones/joint while she was in this state...

Ben mentioned the other day, that medical treatment varies quite a bit in Japan and it's best to shop about for the better ones, I would say to anyone, particularly with Children that you do this checking in advance to avoid the situation we ended up in...

I am very sorry your daughter went through this.

Often times calling an ambulance is preferable because the responders and dispatchers know which hospitals are open, and generally are better at triaging.

It is GW, so there is a chance that whoever lost out on being on shift had near 0 pediatric experience.

[RetireJapan]

That sounds like a horrible situation.

Unfortunately in Japan (at least in my experience), emergency care outside of working hours means all choice goes out of the window and you're lucky to get any treatment at all.

I've had a number of nightmarish experiences trying to get treatment for family members.

I hope your daughter feels better soon and makes a full recovery.

[TokyoWart]

I am sorry that you and your daughter experienced this. A "compound fracture" is an open fracture where bone penetrates through the skin. That requires emergency surgery and would usually involve anesthesia for a child where I was trained (at Stanford about 35 years ago). Is that what this was or a closed fracture (which doesn't penetrate the skin)? For a closed fracture we were taught to avoid general anesthesia as much as possible because the anesthesia has a small chance of a catastrophically bad outcome because it is being used on someone who has not been prepped and may aspirate stomach contents or have a reaction to the anesthetic. Neither scenario is pleasant for the patient or their parents and I hope your daughter is doing okay.

[zeroshiki]

I had a friend visiting from overseas who sprained his ankle but wanted a doctor to look at it, maybe take an x-ray and assure him he didn't break anything. They went to a hospital in Shinjuku (I think it was Okubo Hospital) and since it was night they had to go to emergency. The emergency people wouldn't even open the door for them. As in, just told them through the intercom that we don't treat sprains here and find a different hospital. Was pretty wild translating that to them over the phone.

[Tony]

Just like normal clinics in Japan, most clinics (and small hospital emergency rooms) are specialised. So if they only have an internal medicine doctor available, they won't be doing x-rays. You need to go to the right clinic for that kind of stuff. You can call #7119 to find out where the closest open clinic that will treat your problem is.

[Roger Van Zant]

Sorry you had to go through this.
I gave up with Japanese "doctors" years ago; too poorly trained and most don't have to keep up to date with the latest research in their specialty (most wouldn't even be able to anyways considering the latest research in quality journals is all in English).
Also, the lack of pain relief is just ridiculous in 2025.
Thankfully there is a foreign doctor where I live (Fukuoka), and I've been a happy patient at his clinic since 2005.

[captainspoke]

This was the initial repair after a bike accident. Really just to stabilize the big potato chip.

But for anesthesia (the connection to this thread), only 2 days of the strong stuff (spinal) after surgery, then NSAIDS.

[concerned]

Thanks! all for your replies.
In the end the initial attempt by the Hospital to straighten the bones immediately by trying to push them back into place without Anesthesia did not work, she needed an operation at another University Hospital to fix this, she is due to check out of the hospital today so hopefully will be ok

"Is that what this was or a closed fracture (which doesn't penetrate the skin)?" Yes correct was a closed compound fracture, which for a child needs to be dealt with immediately as their bones grow so fast. It's classified as an emergency situation.

While the operation to address this where they inserted wire to align the bones, used Anesthesia to put her to sleep, they intend to remove this wire after a couple of months without Anesthesia ... Seems in Japan there is a strong reluctance to use it....