chris toth

Review of Seattle Children's

It was horrible! Our son had high TSH and normal T...

It was horrible! Our son had high TSH and normal T4 at birth (thyroid levels were off). Our pediatrician wanted us to see an expert, but also said there was a chance our son could grow out of it at 6-9 months old. We chose to go to Seattle children's hospital due to a few people giving us good reviews. What a mistake! The nurses couldn't figure out how to take blood from an infant. 45 minutes of screaming and 7 tries total from 3 different nurses, and they finally called in an anesthesiologist. He found a vein first try and my son wasn't screaming. Probably helped that he wasn't wiggling the needle around under the skin trying to find a vein. We then went to take some pictures of my son's thyroid. That part was ok. Then onto Dr. Dichek... She wanted to Send us home immediately with hormone replacement (T4) drugs and a prescription for it. All the while his T4 had been normal in every test he had taken up to this point, and the blood taken 30 minutes beforehand wasn't even tested yet! How can a doctor prescribe anything without waiting for their own blood test results to come back? My wife and I decided to leave without the hormones, and thoughts of a second opinion growing. Two days later we get a call from Dr. Dichek informing us that they did not have enough blood to complete the necessary testing, but she wrote us the T4 prescription anyway. That is when we decided that we had to get a second opinion. We found an endocrinologist that is an expert. In the appointment, we were told that as long as our son's T4 was normal then he would be just fine. He also said that some people just have a higher than normal TSH. Then the blood test came back from our new specialist, and all results are normal. We were also told that if our son had started the T4 medication, then it would have killed his thyroid completely. Glad we decided on a second opinion! How many families just followed these doctors advice and killed their childrens normal thyroid? Now we are stuck with a bill almost totaling to just below $1500 from Seattle Children's Hospital. Thanks for the bad memories!