· Clinical Spanish · Pediatric Emergency · Sepsis

Spanish for pediatric sepsis nursing: the parent who delayed presenting because the child didn’t look sick enough, the lactate result that the family hears as a number and asks what it means, and the IV placement in the three-year-old where the nurse’s words determine whether the parent’s fear or her steadiness reaches the child first

Lucia Morales called her mother at noon on a Tuesday. Camila, her three-year-old, had woken up with a fever at 7 AM — 38.4, low-grade, something you give children’s acetaminophen for and watch. By 7:30 Camila had finished half her oatmeal. By 9 AM she was on the couch watching cartoons, fussy but responsive, asking for water. By 10 AM the fever was 38.9 and Camila didn’t want to play. By noon Camila was asleep on the couch and would not wake easily when Lucia tried to rouse her.

Lucia called her mother because she needed a second opinion. Her mother told her: si come y responde, todavía no es grave. If she’s eating and responding, it’s not serious yet.

At 1 PM Camila’s temperature was 39.6. Lucia gave more acetaminophen. By 3 PM the acetaminophen had not broken the fever. At 4 PM Lucia brought Camila to the emergency department. Camila was limp in the car seat. She did not ask where they were going. She did not reach for the toy Lucia put in her hand.

At triage: heart rate 148. Respiratory rate 28. Temperature 39.9 axillary. Capillary refill 3 seconds in the fingertips. Mottled skin at the knees. Lucia was asked: when did the fever start? She said this morning — it wasn’t serious until this afternoon.

The triage note read: fever onset today, acute presentation.

The chart did not reflect nine hours.

What pediatric sepsis looks like from the language side

The delay that kills children in sepsis is not the delay between obvious illness and the emergency department. It is the delay between early sepsis and the parent’s threshold for what counts as a child who needs the emergency department.

In many Spanish-speaking households — and in many English-speaking households; this is not a language problem, it is a parenting model problem that a language barrier makes harder to address — the template for a child who needs the emergency room is a specific presentation: limp, unresponsive, not breathing right, not waking, the sick-looking child. A child who is febrile and fussy and watching television and asking for water does not match that template. And so the parent watches, which is a rational response to a presentation that does not match the learned emergency threshold.

The problem is that early pediatric sepsis looks exactly like a febrile child who is fussy and responsive. The SIRS criteria that define sepsis in children include a heart rate and respiratory rate that are mildly elevated — not visibly alarming at rest. A three-year-old with HR 120, RR 26, temperature 38.8, and capillary refill of 2.5 seconds does not look, to a parent who has never seen the numbers, like a child with an evolving systemic infection. She looks like a child who is sick and resting.

The nurse who knows this has three jobs at triage when a febrile child presents late. The first is to take a history that surfaces the full timeline, not just the presenting complaint. The second is to manage information flow with the family in a way that preserves their capacity to act as clinical partners during the workup. The third is to prepare the family for procedures — specifically IV placement — in a way that makes the parent’s presence a resource rather than a complication.

This post covers all three: the history questions that recover the nine-hour timeline; the lactate result conversation that gives the family a framework rather than a number; and the IV placement in the three-year-old where the nurse’s briefing to the mother determines whether the child is held steady by the only voice she wants to hear.

Scenario one: the parent who waited nine hours because early sepsis looked like a sick day

Lucia is at the triage window. Camila is in her arms, eyes half-open, head against Lucia’s shoulder. The triage nurse has the intake screen open.

The standard question: — ¿Cuándo empezó la fiebre?

Lucia: Esta mañana. Pero se puso mala de verdad esta tarde.

This morning. But she got really sick this afternoon.

The nurse enters: fever onset today. The chart does not reflect that at 7 AM Camila was already febrile with a rising temperature, an altered sleep pattern, and progressive lethargy across nine hours.

Here is what happens instead.

The nurse asks a different first question:

— ¿A qué hora notó la primera vez que Camila tenía fiebre — aunque fuera una temperatura pequeña, aunque no le pareciera grave en ese momento?

What time did you first notice Camila had a fever — even a small one, even one that didn’t seem serious at the time?

Lucia: Como a las siete de la mañana. Pero estaba tomando bien. Come el desayuno a medias.

Around seven in the morning. But she was drinking well. She ate half her breakfast.

The nurse enters: fever onset 07:00 approximately. Then the second question:

— ¿En algún momento hoy Camila estuvo diferente de cómo es normalmente cuando está sana — más quieta, más difícil de despertar, menos interesada en jugar o comer, o cualquier otra cosa que le llamara la atención?

At any point today was Camila different from how she normally is when she’s well — quieter, harder to wake, less interested in playing or eating, or anything else that caught your attention?

Lucia: Sí. Como a las diez se quedó en el sofá y no quería jugar. Y al mediodía me costó despertarla. Llamé a mi mamá y me dijo que si comía y respondía todavía no era grave.

Yes. Around ten she stayed on the couch and didn’t want to play. And at noon I had trouble waking her. I called my mom and she told me that if she was eating and responding it wasn’t serious yet.

The nurse enters: behavioral change at approximately 10:00 (decreased activity, not playing); difficult to rouse at 12:00; caretaker sought advice and was told child did not meet threshold for ED. Presentation to ED at 16:00. Approximate illness arc: 9 hours.

This history changes three things. It changes the physician’s acuity assessment in the first thirty seconds. It changes the differential — a nine-hour febrile illness with a behavioral arc ending in mottling and tachycardia is a different clinical picture than an acute onset of the same vital signs. And it gives the team context for the family’s threshold, which will inform the return-precautions education later.

The nurse adds a third question before leaving the window:

— ¿Qué fue lo que le dijo que era momento de traerla?

What was it that told you it was time to bring her?

Lucia: Ya no respondía. No quería el juguete que le puse en la mano. Eso no es como ella.

She wasn’t responding anymore. She didn’t want the toy I put in her hand. That’s not like her.

The nurse writes: mother identified the decision point as Camila no longer responding to offered objects — behavioral change the family recognized as outside the spectrum of normal illness. The mother came when she could see the difference. She had a framework for normal illness; she needed a framework for when that illness crosses into something else.

The timeline question for early-presenting siblings

Lucia’s history also matters for what comes next. A child presenting with nine-hour fever arc and sepsis physiology may have a sibling at home who has been in the same house. The question that covers this:

— ¿Tiene otros niños en casa? ¿Alguien más ha tenido fiebre hoy?

Do you have other children at home? Has anyone else had a fever today?

This is not a risk-stratification question for the current patient. It is a public-health question with clinical implications if the etiology turns out to be bacterial meningitis or a cluster organism. It costs fifteen seconds. In cases where the answer is yes — there’s a five-year-old at home who was fussy this morning — it sets the stage for a phone call to the pediatrician that happens before the family leaves the ED.

What the history question is actually doing

The standard triage question — ¿cuándo empezó la fiebre? — asks for an event. The event Lucia identifies is esta mañana, but the event she is describing is the moment the fever reached the level she noticed as concerning, not the moment the child’s physiology began to shift. These are different events. The first is the clinical onset. The second is the parental recognition threshold.

The clinical-onset question — ¿a qué hora notó la primera vez, aunque no le pareciera grave? — explicitly bridges this gap. It asks for the first observation, not the first alarm. And it gives the parent explicit permission to report something she did not think was serious, which removes the filter that produces the esta mañana — pero no fue grave hasta esta tarde answer.

The behavioral-arc question — ¿en algún momento estuvo diferente de cómo está cuando está sana? — does something different. It asks the parent to compare this day against her own baseline for this child. Lucia knows what Camila’s sick days look like. She knows that Camila on a normal fever day still grabs the remote and argues about what to watch. She knows that Camila not wanting the toy was different. The question surfaces the parent’s clinical observation in the language of deviation from baseline — which is exactly the frame the nurse needs to assess severity.

Two questions. Forty-five seconds. Nine hours of clinical history recovered.

Scenario two: the lactate result the family hears as a number

Camila is in a room. Two large-bore IVs are in — more on that next. Blood cultures are drawn. A lactate is back. The attending goes to the family waiting room where Lucia is sitting with her mother, who arrived thirty minutes after Camila was taken to the treatment area.

The attending: El lactato de Camila es de 4.2. Estamos preocupados por una infección grave. Estamos tratando de bajarlo.

Camila’s lactate is 4.2. We’re concerned about a serious infection. We’re trying to bring it down.

The attending goes back. Lucia looks at her mother. Her mother looks at the wall.

Lucia: ¿Cuánto es cuatro punto dos?

How much is 4.2?

Her mother: No sé. Mucho, supongo.

I don’t know. A lot, I suppose.

The nurse who walks in finds two people with a number and no map for it.

The nurse sits down. Not standing in the doorway — sitting.

— Quiero explicarle qué significa ese número, ¿puedo?

I want to explain what that number means — may I?

Lucia nods.

— El lactato es una sustancia que el cuerpo produce cuando los tejidos — los músculos, los órganos — no están recibiendo suficiente sangre y oxígeno. Cuando el cuerpo está sano, el lactato es bajo — menos de dos. El de Camila es de cuatro punto dos. Eso nos dice que su cuerpo está trabajando muy fuerte para compensar algo — una infección, en el caso de Camila. Por eso el equipo está actuando rápido.

Lactate is a substance the body produces when the tissues — the muscles, the organs — aren’t receiving enough blood and oxygen. When the body is healthy, lactate is low — less than two. Camila’s is 4.2. That tells us her body is working very hard to compensate for something — an infection, in Camila’s case. That’s why the team is acting quickly.

Lucia: ¿Y eso es peligroso?

And is that dangerous?

This is the question the nurse cannot answer with yes or no without either alarming or misleading. Lactate 4.2 in a three-year-old in moderate distress, in an ED with a sepsis protocol running, is a number that requires treatment. It is not automatically fatal. It is not benign. The honest answer:

— Es un número que nos dice que Camila necesita este tratamiento ahora mismo. Y eso es exactamente lo que está recibiendo. Lo que vamos a ver es si el lactato baja en las próximas dos horas con los antíbióticos y los líquidos. Si baja, es una señal de que el cuerpo está respondiendo bien. Voy a volver a las ocho a decirle cómo va.

It’s a number that tells us Camila needs this treatment right now. And that is exactly what she is receiving. What we’re going to watch is whether the lactate comes down in the next two hours with the antibiotics and fluids. If it comes down, that’s a sign the body is responding well. I’m going to come back at eight to tell you how it’s going.

The grandmother: ¿Y ella va a estar bien?

And she is going to be fine?

The nurse:

— Lo que puedo decirle es que el equipo está haciendo exactamente lo que se debe hacer cuando un niño tiene este tipo de infección. Voy a volver a las ocho con información real — no voy a esperar a que usted me busque.

What I can tell you is that the team is doing exactly what needs to be done when a child has this type of infection. I’m going to come back at eight with real information — I’m not going to wait for you to come find me.

The commitment to return at eight is not a placeholder. It is a clinical intervention. A family with a check-in cadence has a framework. They know when the next piece of information is coming. They are not interpreting the nurse’s absence as silence because silence is how bad news travels in every hospital waiting room they have ever sat in.

The second lactate update

At 20:07 the nurse returns. Second lactate: 2.9.

— Vine a decirle que el segundo lactato de Camila es de dos punto nueve. ¿Se acuerda que le exliqué que un número normal es menos de dos?

I’m here to tell you that Camila’s second lactate is 2.9. Do you remember that I explained the normal number is less than two?

Lucia: Sí.

— De 4.2 a 2.9 — el número bajó. Eso nos dice que el cuerpo de Camila está respondiendo a los líquidos y los antíbióticos. Todavía la vamos a seguir observando, pero es una buena dirección.

From 4.2 to 2.9 — the number came down. That tells us Camila’s body is responding to the fluids and antibiotics. We’re still going to keep watching her, but that’s a good direction.

Lucia, for the first time in four hours, exhales.

The nurse built the framework in the first visit. The second visit filled it in. The family understood what 4.2 meant, so they understood what 2.9 meant. The number is no longer just a number — it is a data point in a model the nurse built in seven minutes.

The word sepsis

The attending will use the word sepsis at some point in this conversation. The nurse’s job is not to preempt the diagnosis — that belongs to the physician. But if the nurse has explained the lactate in the terms above, the word sepsis when it arrives lands in a framework rather than in a void.

The question that surfaces the family’s existing model of the word, if the physician has already used it:

— El médico les habló de sepsis. ¿Qué entienden de eso — con sus propias palabras?

The doctor mentioned sepsis. What do you understand by that — in your own words?

The answers range from nothing at all to a catastrophized model drawn from a death in the family. Both are manageable with the framework the nurse has already built. The answer that is not manageable is the one that goes unasked — where the family has a model of the word that may or may not match clinical reality, and the nurse does not know which one it is.

Scenario three: IV placement in the three-year-old, and what happens when the nurse scripts the parent before it starts

Camila is in room 4. The physician has ordered two large-bore IVs for fluid resuscitation and antibiotic delivery. Two nurses. A toddler in moderate respiratory distress who has been prodded at and moved for forty minutes and who wants her mother. Lucia is standing at the door of the room, uncertain whether she should be inside or outside.

The first instinct of many nurses in this scenario is to ask the parent to wait outside. The reasoning is reasonable: a parent who is distressed in the room during a painful procedure in a distressed child can escalate the child’s fear, can move at the wrong moment, can become another problem to manage.

The reasoning is correct for an unprepared parent. It is incorrect for a prepared one.

An unprepared parent watching her three-year-old receive IV placement is a person watching the worst forty seconds of her day happen to her child with no role and no script. Her face reflects that. Her child reads her face. The child’s escalation is not a behavior problem — it is an accurate reading of environmental signal.

A prepared parent is different. A parent who has been told what will happen, what her child will do, what she says during it, and why her presence is the intervention — that parent is the most useful clinical tool in the room.

The nurse turns to Lucia at the door.

— ¿Quiere estar con Camila mientras le ponemos la vía? Voy a explicarle exactamente lo que va a pasar y cuál es su papel — y sí hay un papel importante para usted.

Would you like to be with Camila while we put in the IV? I’m going to explain exactly what’s going to happen and what your role is — and yes, there is an important role for you.

Lucia: Sí, quiero estar.

The nurse brings Lucia to Camila’s head — not to the arm, not to the side where the needle is going. To the head, where Camila can see Lucia’s face.

— Necesito que se quede aquí, cerca de la cabeza de Camila, donde ella pueda ver su cara. Su trabajo en esto — el más importante — es que la cara que Camila vea en este momento sea la de usted. Tranquila.

I need you to stay here, near Camila’s head, where she can see your face. Your job in this — the most important one — is that the face Camila sees right now is yours. Calm.

Then the briefing. This takes forty-five seconds. It is worth every one of them.

— Le voy a poner una vía en el brazo — una aguja pequeña que se queda conectada para darle los medicamentos y el suero. Va a sentir un pellizco fuerte — va a doler un momento. Cuando le duela, ella va a llorar. Eso es completamente normal, y no significa que algo está saliendo mal. Cuando ella llore, lo que necesito de usted es que la siga mirando a la cara y le diga: ‘Aquí estoy. Ya casi termina. Te tengo.’ Eso es todo. Nada más. No le diga que no va a doler — sí va a doler. No le diga que ya terminó si todavía no ha terminado. Solo: ‘Aquí estoy. Ya casi termina. Te tengo.’

I’m going to put an IV in her arm — a small needle that stays connected to give her the medications and fluids. She’s going to feel a strong pinch — it’s going to hurt for a moment. When it hurts, she’s going to cry. That’s completely normal, and it doesn’t mean something is going wrong. When she cries, what I need from you is to keep looking at her face and say: ‘I’m here. It’s almost done. I’ve got you.’ That’s all. Nothing else. Don’t tell her it’s not going to hurt — it is going to hurt. Don’t tell her it’s done if it’s not done yet. Just: ‘I’m here. It’s almost done. I’ve got you.’

Lucia repeats it quietly: Aquí estoy. Ya casi termina. Te tengo.

— Exacto.

The procedure

The second nurse secures Camila’s arm. The tourniquet. Lucia is at Camila’s head, her face level with her daughter’s, her hand on Camila’s cheek.

The nurse: — ¿Lista, Camila? Mira a mamá. Mamá está aquí.

Ready, Camila? Look at mama. Mama is here.

Camila turns toward Lucia’s face. Her lower lip is already trembling.

— Uno, dos, tres — ya va — ya está.

Camila cries. Sharp and then sustained, that full-body toddler cry that fills the room. Lucia looks at Camila’s face and says, without looking at the arm:

Aquí estoy. Ya casi termina. Te tengo. Aquí estoy.

I’m here. It’s almost done. I’ve got you. I’m here.

Flash of blood. The nurse advances the catheter. Tapes it. Confirms patency. The second IV on the other arm: same sequence, same positioning, same script. Forty seconds the second time.

Camila’s crying drops from sustained to subsiding. She is reaching for Lucia with her free hand.

The nurse, to Lucia, not to Camila:

— Lo que acaba de hacer — quedarse, mirarla, decirle que estaba — fue exactamente lo que Camila necesitaba. Eso no fue fácil.

What you just did — staying, looking at her, telling her you were there — was exactly what Camila needed. That wasn’t easy.

Lucia: Yo pensaba que me iban a pedir que saliera.

I thought they were going to ask me to leave.

— No. Usted es lo que ella necesitaba en ese momento.

No. You were what she needed at that moment.

Why the briefing is the procedure

The forty-five-second briefing does four things. First: it tells Lucia what will happen, in sequence and in detail, so nothing is a surprise. A prepared parent does not startle when the child cries. She knew the child was going to cry.

Second: it gives Lucia a role. A role is not the same as permission to be present. A parent with permission but no role is a bystander managing her own fear in the same room as her child’s pain. A parent with a role has something to do, which means her attention is on the task rather than on managing her own anxiety. The role is specific: look at her face. Say these three sentences. Nothing else.

Third: it explicitly prohibits the responses that escalate the child. No le diga que no va a doler — don’t tell her it won’t hurt — addresses the most common parental instinct, which is to reassure in advance. A child who is told it won’t hurt and then it does hurt has been given inaccurate information by the person she trusts most. Her response to that inaccuracy is not a pain response — it is a betrayal response. The nurse’s briefing replaces false reassurance with something that is actually reassuring: Lucia will know it’s happening, Lucia will be there, and Lucia will tell her when it’s almost done.

Fourth: it gives Camila a signal. A three-year-old in a frightening room looking at the face of a calm parent is receiving a coherent signal: the person who knows when I’m safe or not safe looks calm. The person who knows when I’m safe or not safe is here. The person who knows when I’m safe or not safe is talking to me. Whatever is happening to my arm is something my mother knows about and is not afraid of.

The nurse did not instruct Lucia where to look. She told Lucia where to be positioned, and the positioning accomplished the instruction: if you are at the head, you look down at her face. If you are at the side, you look at her arm. The briefing is an architecture decision as much as a language decision.

When the parent cannot be present

Sometimes the parent cannot be prepared. The child is seizing. The situation is a true emergency and there is not forty-five seconds. Sometimes the parent is more distressed than the child can be helped by, and bringing her in would introduce a signal the child cannot integrate. These are real scenarios.

When the parent cannot be present, the nurse explains after:

— La pedimos que esperara afuera porque necesitábamos movernos rápido. Ya terminamos — Camila está con los medicamentos que necesita. ¿Quiere verla?

We asked you to wait outside because we needed to move quickly. We’re done — Camila has the medications she needs. Do you want to see her?

The explanation closes the exclusion. Without it, the parent sits outside knowing she was removed and not knowing why. She fills in the reason herself. She will fill it in with the worst explanation that fits the available information, which is the worst explanation she knows. The after-explanation — thirty seconds — replaces that fill-in with actual information.

The return-precautions conversation: closing the gap on early presentation

At 22:00, Camila’s second lactate is 2.2. Fever 38.1 with antipyretics. Heart rate 108. Capillary refill 2 seconds. She has been admitted to the pediatric unit for overnight observation and IV antibiotics. The ED nurse is completing the handoff note. Lucia is at the bedside.

The nurse sits down for the last time.

— Quiero hablar con usted sobre algo antes de que Camila suba a la planta, ¿puede ser?

I want to talk with you about something before Camila goes up to the floor — is that okay?

Lucia: Sí.

— Cuando los niños tienen este tipo de infección grave — lo que el médico llamó sepsis — las primeras horas a veces se parecen a una enfermedad normal. Fiebre, que no quiere comer, que está más quieta. Por eso es difícil saber cuándo traerlos. Usted hizo bien en traerla cuando la vía camó — cuando Camila no quería el juguete. Eso es exactamente la señal correcta.

When children have this type of serious infection — what the doctor called sepsis — the first hours sometimes look like a normal illness. Fever, not wanting to eat, quieter than usual. That’s why it’s hard to know when to bring them in. You did the right thing bringing her when something changed — when Camila didn’t want the toy. That is exactly the right signal.

Lucia: Mi mamá me dijo que si comía y respondía todavía no era grave.

My mom told me that if she was eating and responding it wasn’t serious yet.

— Su mamá le dio el mejor consejo que tenía. Pero hay algo que ahora usted ya sabe que su mamá no sabía: cuando la infección es en la sangre, el niño puede estar comiendo y respondiendo al principio — y eso puede cambiar rápido. Por eso la próxima vez, si Camila tiene fiebre alta y algo en cómo está le parece diferente de una gripe normal — más difícil de despertar, respirando más rápido, la piel se ve rara, no orina en varias horas — no espere a ver si se pone peor. Tráigala.

Your mom gave you the best advice she had. But there’s something you now know that your mom didn’t know: when the infection is in the blood, the child can be eating and responding at first — and that can change quickly. That’s why next time, if Camila has a high fever and something about how she is seems different from a normal flu — harder to wake, breathing faster, skin looks strange, not urinating for several hours — don’t wait to see if she gets worse. Bring her in.

Lucia: ¿Y si me dicen que estoy exagerando?

And if they tell me I’m overreacting?

— Eso es preferible. Tráigala. Nosotros le decimos si puede irse.

That’s preferable. Bring her in. We’ll tell you if she can go home.

The STOP signs in plain Spanish

The return-precautions list for a parent whose child had sepsis needs to be specific about the signs that override any other framework she’s been given — including the “if she’s eating and responding” threshold:

— Le voy a dar una lista de señales de alarma para traer a Camila de inmediato, ¿puede ser?

Traiga a Camila de inmediato si nota alguna de estas cosas:

The last item is the one that catches everything else. It gives Lucia a calibrating heuristic rather than a symptom checklist. A symptom checklist is only as good as the symptoms the nurse was able to anticipate. The calibrating heuristic — diferente de cómo está con una gripe normal — is open-ended. It gives Lucia credit for knowing her daughter, and it gives her permission to use that knowledge as a clinical instrument.

Pediatric sepsis vocabulary and phrase reference

These phrases cover the triage history, the family update, the IV placement briefing, and the return-precautions conversation:

History: onset and behavioral arc

¿A qué hora notó la primera vez que tenía fiebre — aunque no le pareciera grave?

What time did you first notice the fever — even if it didn’t seem serious?

¿En algún momento hoy estuvo diferente de cómo está normalmente cuando está sano/sana?

At any point today was he/she different from how he/she normally is when well?

¿Más quieto/a, más difícil de despertar, menos interesado/a en comer o jugar?

Quieter, harder to wake, less interested in eating or playing?

¿Qué fue lo que le dijo que era momento de traerlo/a?

What was it that told you it was time to bring him/her?

Lactate explanation

El lactato es una sustancia que el cuerpo produce cuando los tejidos no están recibiendo suficiente sangre y oxígeno.

Lactate is a substance the body produces when tissues aren’t receiving enough blood and oxygen.

Un nivel normal es menos de dos.

A normal level is less than two.

El de [nombre] es de [número] — eso nos dice que el cuerpo está trabajando muy fuerte para compensar algo.

His/her number is [number] — that tells us the body is working very hard to compensate for something.

Vamos a ver si el lactato baja en las próximas dos horas.

We’re going to watch whether the lactate comes down in the next two hours.

Voy a regresar a [hora] a decirle cómo va.

I’m going to come back at [time] to tell you how it’s going.

IV placement briefing

¿Quiere estar con [nombre] mientras le ponemos la vía? Voy a explicarle cuál es su papel.

Would you like to be with [name] while we put in the IV? I’m going to explain what your role is.

Su trabajo es que la cara que [nombre] vea en este momento sea la de usted — tranquila.

Your job is that the face [name] sees right now is yours — calm.

Va a sentir un pellizco fuerte — va a doler un momento. Cuando le duela, va a llorar. Eso está bien.

He/she is going to feel a strong pinch — it’s going to hurt for a moment. When it hurts, he/she will cry. That’s okay.

Lo que necesito de usted: mírele la cara y diga: ‘Aquí estoy. Ya casi termina. Te tengo.’

What I need from you: look at his/her face and say: ‘I’m here. It’s almost done. I’ve got you.’

No le diga que no va a doler.

Don’t tell him/her it won’t hurt.

Sepsis return precautions

Las primeras horas de una infección grave a veces se parecen a una enfermedad normal.

The first hours of a serious infection sometimes look like a normal illness.

Si algo en cómo está le parece diferente de una gripe normal — tráigalo/a.

If anything about how he/she is seems different from a normal flu — bring him/her in.

No espere a ver si se pone peor. Tráigalo/a. Nosotros le decimos si puede irse.

Don’t wait to see if he/she gets worse. Bring him/her in. We’ll tell you if he/she can go home.

Related reading

These posts cover adjacent clinical contexts where the same communication failures recur with Spanish-speaking families:

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