Picture of the Barclay WardThe Barclay Ward at Barts and The London Children's Hospital.

Day 19: Arriving at the hospital

When Sarah gets to the hospital the cystic fibrosis consultant examines her. She decides that Sarah needs to stay in hospital for two weeks as she has a chest infection that needs intravenous antibiotics. Sarah will stay in the Barclay Ward at the Royal London Hospital, a special medical ward for children.

A nurse from the ward takes a cough swab or sputum sample to send to the microbiology laboratory in the hospital to find out what exactly what kind of bacteria Sarah is infected with. The clinical microbiologist can use this information to decide which antibiotics would kill the bacteria. The consultant microbiologist then tells Sarah’s cystic fibrosis consultant and clinical nurse specialist which intravenous antibiotics to give to Sarah.