A Trip to the Hospital

You may have gone to the hospital before. Maybe you visited someone there. Perhaps you met your baby sister at the hospital for the first time. A hospital can seem like a large and scary place, especially if you are a patient.

Kate was a patient at the hospital once. She broke her leg playing soccer and had to be taken off the field and to the hospital by ambulance. Meg was rushed there during the night by her parents. Why? She was having an asthma attack. Nick had to stay in the hospital to get special medicine when he was sick. Chris had to go to the hospital to get his tonsils taken out. Each of these children, whether they were sick or hurt, went to a hospital to get better.

Children end up as patients in the hospital in different ways. Sometimes doctors send them to the hospital if they are very sick. Some might need surgery. Some might need special tests to find out what's going on. These patients are admitted to the hospital. Sometimes patients enter the hospital by way of the emergency room. Either the parent or a doctor can send a child there if immediate medical care is needed. The emergency room can treat a broken arm, an allergic reaction to a bee sting, or an asthma attack. If the child needs to remain overnight, then the child will be admitted at that point. When a child is admitted, his or her parents need to fill out lots of forms. That may seem annoying or inconvenient, but it is necessary. The hospital staff needs to know some important things about a patient. Of course they need to know the patient's name and age. They must also know if he or she is taking any medicines or has any allergies.