Ryan Wettstein Nauman was inconsolable one evening last December. After being put down for bed, the 3-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, just kept crying and crying and crying, and nothing would calm her down.
Her mother, Maggi Wettstein, remembered fearing it could be a yeast or urinary tract infection, something they had been dealing with during potty training. The urgent care centers around them were closed for the night, so around 10:30 p.m. she decided to take Ryan to the emergency room at Carle Health.
The Medical Procedure
The ER wasn’t very busy when they arrived at 10:48 p.m., Wettstein recalled. Medical records indicate they checked in and she explained Ryan’s symptoms, including an intermittent fever. The toddler was triaged and given a nasal swab test to check for covid-19 and influenza A and B.
Wettstein said they sat down and waited to be called. And they waited.
As Wettstein watched Ryan in the waiting room’s play area, she noticed her daughter had stopped crying.
In fact, she seemed fine.
So Wettstein decided to drive them home. Ryan had preschool the next day, and she figured there was no point keeping her awake for who knew how much longer and getting stuck with a big ER bill.
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There was no one at the check-in desk …