He picked up his phone at 7:30 am when I called, which I thought was a good sign. Unfortunately, that was the last good thing he did. I told him about the little guy's fever and he told me it was probably a middle ear infection and that he would be able to come to us and check him out. He explained that he had two appointments and would be able to see us by late morning.
Little Ethan went down for his morning nap and I felt relieved that a doctor would be there soon. When nap time was over, I went to pick my baby up and he was ever warmer than he was before (even though he had already taken baby Tylenol). My mind immediately went to brain damage and all sorts of other terrible scenarios. It was around 10:30, so I rushed to my phone and called the doctor. He sounded annoyed that I called and stressed to me that there was a line and I was going to have to wait my turn. After that, he told me that my child was fine and to give him another dose of baby Tylenol or try baby Advil. He then told me that it was just a fever from an ear infection.
I drove to CVS almost taking out every biker and pedestrian that crossed my path. I got baby Advil and a thermometer. As I drove back, I decided that if his fever was over 102 degrees that I would call 911. His fever was 101, so we stayed put to wait for the doctor.
At 11:00, Dr. Langley called me and told me he was his way to his second patient and that he would get to us at 12:15. He finally showed up around 1:00 pm in a rumpled light blue polo shirt covered in perspiration.
As my child laid on my shoulder burning up from fever, he went on and on about how he likes to make children comfortable with him before he examines them. He pulled out a pack of stickers for my 12 month old to play with (like he even knows what a sticker is). About an hour into the appointment, he still hadn't looked at the baby.
When he finally did, he was grabbing at Little Ethan's face with his unwashed hands in an attempt to look in his ears. He told me that one of his ears was infected (even though he couldn't get a clear look at it because it was impacted by wax). Dr. Langley listened to his lungs and told me they were clear. He pulled out a bunch of dirty conversion charts in order to write a prescription. He had to do the math multiple times because he kept confusing himself. To my surprise, he never looked at his throat, teeth, nose, or any other party of him. I mentioned a rash that had developed on his shoulders and pulled back Little Ethan's shirt for him to see. He didn't seem very interested and diagnosed it as heat rash.
What I showed Dr. Langley
At this point, my little guy was asleep on my should and burning up. Dr. Langley had been with us for two hours and was still going on and on about how he has so many patients that need things to be converted to metric and how his daughter was a fashion consultant who traveled to China and Venice. Finally, he told us that he would need $280 for the visit....cash only. Thank goodness my mother had the amount so we could get rid of him.
Because of his clumsiness with conversions, I called me regular pediatrician to check his work. They told me that the antibiotic he gave me was correct. However, he also instructed me to give him a children's strength anti-histamine (even though he had no congestion). My pediatrician seemed shocked - that type of medicine is not supposed to be used on anyone younger than four.
Even though I was disgusted with Dr. Langley's behavior, professionalism, and dirty appearance, I was happy to have the anti-biotic. I figured it would help any sort of infection that he had.
Later that evening, the baby seemed to be feeling better. We went to get in the car for dinner and to our surprise, a car pulled up next to ours and rolled down the window. It was Dr. Langley again. We quickly answered his questions so he would go away. I don't know why he was right outside of the place we were staying, but I do know that it gave me the creeps.
After dinner, we experienced the night from hell. Little Ethan was up all night screaming out and hyperventilating in pain. I ended up bursting into tears while my mother rocked the baby....thank goodness she was here.
The next morning, my mom and I felt and looked like we had been hit my a bus. However, Little Ethan seemed to be doing better. His fever had broken thanks to the Tylenol and motrin we had been giving him and he was in a better mood. The only thing that changed was that his rash looked blistered. I figured that since he had such a high fever, it probably made the heat rash worse.
After Little Ethan's second nap of the day, we were all hopeful that he had turned a corner. The little guy and I walked outside and found my mom. I showed her the blister on one of his hands and told her that the fever must have made his heat rash worse. Then, I flipped over his arm to examine the underside.....which was completely broken out in rash that was not there an hour ago.
My mom and I rushed to the car with Little Ethan, who wasn't even wearing any pants. Thank goodness my mom found out about a clinic earlier (she wanted to make sure we never had to use Dr. Langley again). We arrived at 4:45 to find out that it closed at 4:30. I was about to burst into tears again when a nurse walked out of the clinic. I jumped out of the car and explained our predicament.
She was incredible. She had us follow her to an after hours clinic and even stayed until our appointment was over. I could go into detailed description about how wonderful and professional the people at the clinic were, but that would take away from the point.
The diagnosis - NO EAR INFECTION. My poor little man has Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. It is a painful virus that causes rash and blisters (specifically on the hands, feet, and mouth), sore throat, and a high fever.
My Baby's Foot
I would like to apologize for the incredibly long post, but when I looked up Dr. John C. Langley, I couldn't find anything about the quality of his work. My hope is that if people look him up that they will know what a terrible doctor he is. He had a preconceived notion of what was wrong my my son and barely looked at him. He is not "Doing No Harm", he is preying on tourists and desperate sick people. DO NOT CALL DR. JOHN C. LANGLEY (aka Doctor On Call Key West Florida http://www.doctoroncallkeywest.com/).
I'm so sorry. I know you and your mother were most likely basket cases. Sounds like this doctor has been watching too much "Royal Pains" on the telly and wants the perks without the earned credibility. I hope Ethan's a lot better. How wonderful for all of you that the clinic nurse was so professional and humane! She's the hero of this story.
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