Taking the Fear Out of Investigations

In 1970 a medical student walked out of an examination room in a Radiology Department of a large teaching hospital saying, “I think that is barbaric, holding down a screaming child to have a bladder x-ray”. At the time I thought she was over-reacting. After all, the child needed to have an x-ray examination of the bladder (MCU) and a kidney x-ray (IVP) to assess whether there were any organic abnormalities predisposing her two urinary infections with possible renal damage.

Some time later a mother returned to her referring paediatrician with a very distorted account of what had happened to her three year old daughter undergoing an x-ray examination of the bladder and kidneys.