Emergency Room Series: Superstitious Beliefs

Sometimes people will just get you angry and you'll begin to wonder if they're normal at all

I don't even think education affects the way some people reason at all. If one person does something and it works, that doesn't mean it will work for you. It's like taking antihypertensives when you don't have hypertension, it would work for someone who has hypertension but could kill you. 

Why are some people so superstitious, even at the point of death! At this age and time?

A couple made a deadly mistake that will haunt them forever and it is definitely not out of ignorance or lack of education of the parents.


All hell broke loose when they brought this child to the ER. The child was already gasping, incontinent, unconscious, pale and very dehydrated. The skin was wrinkled and very dry. We couldn't get an IV access in time because all the veins had collapsed, it wasn't even up to 5mins they got to the ER that the child went into cardiac arrest. 

That was how we started CPR. At the back of our minds, we knew it would take a miracle for the child to survive it judging by the presentation , but still we hoped the child would make it. While the CPR was being done, another doctor asked the parents what happened and why they would bring the child when the condition was already critical. 

The parents claimed the child had been stooling, vomiting and running fever for about four days. They said they thought the child was teething and it was 'normal teething process' and that was why they didn't bring the child to the hospital in time. When asked if they at least gave syrups to calm the temperature, they said no because they 'thought it would go'. I was just shaking my head because I couldn't imagine what I was hearing. We noticed the child was drooling some yellowish fluid so the parents were asked what it was, only to receive a shocker that it was the child's urine that they poured into the child's mouth on instructions of the father's mother. 

She was said to have been the one who brought the whole teething idea and advised them to give the child urine if there was a fever. The child's mother said her husband's mother claimed it was the same thing she did when the father of the child was a baby and it 'made the teeth grow out so well'. We were all dazed! Even a mentally ill person cannot give a child urine to drink! 

Anyways, the CPR continued for about 20 more minutes but we got no heartbeat. The heart was already failing and weak to restart . The deed had been done. The parents begged for a miracle but sadly the child was gone. I felt so much anger inside, I wanted to yell and just rip the parents apart but I just stood there, watching how the mother began to hit the husband's chest (who had been surprisingly calm all along) , wailing and blaming his mother.

 These are two educated people who just lost their child because of some kind of ideology or belief or 'respect for the elderly '. The father's mother wasn't at the hospital but I could tell the child's mother had been through a lot with the woman because she accused the husband of so many family issues his mother had caused. We allowed the mother of the child to express her grieve. At a point, she held her breasts and began to curse the woman. She said she had wanted to bring the child to the hospital when the stooling started but the mother in-law said no. I don't know why a mother-in-law will have so much power. 

Such a devil incarnate! 

For those who don't know, the common symptoms of teething are drooling, swollen and bulging gums, irritability, trouble sleeping, trying to bite, chew and suck on everything and rejecting food. Vomiting, stooling and persistent high fever are NOT signs of teething

*Jesus Christ!!!!