On 8/31/2026 my daughter had her tonsils and adenoids removed along with a dental procedure at El Paso Children's Hospital. Because she has sleep apnea, we were told that she needed to stay overnight so her oxygen levels could be monitored after surgery. My wife and I had no major objection to that. Our concerns began after she was admitted. She was initially connected to the monitoring equipment, but during the night she was not consistently connected to the monitors. The nursing staff generally came in about every three hours to administer medication, but otherwise there seemed to be very little monitoring—the primary reason we had been told she needed to stay overnight. Our experience with the night staff was especially disappointing. Our nurse gave us an extension and told us to call if we needed anything, but when we called, we could not get an answer. We eventually used the bedside call system and asked for our daughter's nurse. The person who answered responded, "What do you need her for?" That was an incredibly inappropriate response to parents asking for the nurse responsible for their child's care. There were also multiple occasions when we asked for something as simple as a popsicle for our daughter after surgery. We were told the message would be passed along or that someone would bring one, and then no one returned. At other times, medication was brought in and we were told the nurse would return to verify that our daughter had taken it, but the nurse never came back to check. The most concerning part of our experience happened the following morning. We were suddenly told there were concerns because our daughter was "small." A nutritionist then came to our room and told my wife that a doctor had characterized our daughter as severely malnourished. The nutritionist stepped outside to speak with a colleague, and my wife could hear her questioning that assessment. She asked for our daughter's measurements to be taken again. That is when we learned that our daughter's height had apparently been recorded incorrectly—approximately seven inches taller than her actual height. Finding out that such a significant measurement error was in our daughter's chart was extremely concerning, particularly after she had already undergone procedures involving general and local anesthesia. At a minimum, parents should be able to trust that basic information such as their child's height and weight is recorded accurately before treatment. I asked to speak with the doctor who had raised the concern about our daughter being "small." It took quite some time for him to return. When he finally did, rather than acknowledging that the measurements underlying the concern had been incorrect, he continued emphasizing that she was "small" and that he had relied on the charts. Meanwhile, the nutritionist herself had questioned the severe-malnutrition assessment and requested that the measurements be redone. What makes this especially frustrating is that there were a couple of nurses during our stay who were kind and professional, so I know the level of care we experienced from others was not inevitable and unacceptable. Unfortunately, those positive interactions were the exception rather than the rule. I understand that hospitals are busy and that no medical experience will be perfect. But when parents are told their child needs to remain hospitalized specifically for monitoring, we expect that monitoring to actually occur. We also expect calls for assistance to be answered, medication administration to be appropriately followed up on, basic requests for a recovering child to be addressed, and something as fundamental as our child's height to be accurately recorded before medical decisions are made based on it. Our overall experience at El Paso Children's Hospital was extremely disappointing and, at times, genuinely concerning. We will do everything reasonably possible to avoid bringing our daughter back to this hospital for future care.o avoid coming back.
