Oishei Children's Hospital - Buffalo, New York

Tyler Bluder

Not sure why all the negative comments/1 stars, but our experience was exceptional. I’d give 10 stars if I could. My son was brought in on a referral from another hospital without a pediatric surgeon at 4am for an emergency appendectomy. We had a room right away in triage and then to the family room shortly after. He was squeezed into an early surgery and out by 9am. Everyone from the nurses, RNs, Doctors, and even the housekeepers were amazing. We were extremely skeptical from reading the reviews before we arrived, but our experience was amazing. Our room even had two pull-out beds and a bathroom with a shower that we could use (much needed after being up for over 28 hours at that point). Just bummed we missed Josh Allen visiting by about 12 hours. If you’re coming here for emergency surgery, rest assured your experience will be nothing short of amazing. Huge thank you to all the staff for going out of their way to support us!!

Last note is the food. “Room service” for the patient is ACTUAL FOOD and not the typical hospital food. For the parents/guardians, there is a deli on the second floor that was great and across the street in Buffalo general (I think that’s what it’s called) is a Tim Hortons. It’s just a short two minute walk away and on the second floor also.

madi b

Disgusting Phlebotomist office and workers have no idea abt the laws and guidelines of blood cross contamination and infection, my 5 month old had to get blood work before his kidney surgery on (1/24/25) friday @2:58pm we signed in. so we went to get his blood drawn and waited 15 minutes for anyone to appear to sign us in (there was one other lady waiting) , after she gets us back to the room and tells me to lay my son down and she ties the band and proceeds to without any gloves or freshly washing her hands draw my infants blood out if his arm. she continued to stick the needle in and out (not fully leaving the hole) and fished under his skin trying to find vein. she continues to for about 3/4 minutes as my baby’s screaming. ( fishing should avoid repeatedly probing or moving the needle around trying to find a vein, as it can be very painful and potentially damaging to the infant's delicate tissue) as she’s doing such she’s using her bare fingers to hold down on the needle and skin to be pressure touching the needle and sliding it back in deeper meaning it was unsterile at that point going into his arm. she also had acrylic nails on. she then proceeded to ask the other lady to help draw my infants blood and the other lady again walks in putting no gloves on just a squirt of foam hand sanitizer, i then proceed to tell them to both stop and take the needle out. within that whole experience of 7/10 minutes of them struggling and fishing under my babies skin they got not an ounce of blood in the tube just leaving my son traumatized.. with a bruise wrapping around his whole top of his arm. i will be reporting this tomorrow morning as im ashamed i didn’t speak up immediately at the time being. absolutely disgusting

Tom Meland

My 2 year old son woke up at 1am gasping for air and coughing uncontrollably. I assumed going to the emergency room for an emergency would imply some sense of urgency. Not the case. I parked in front of the nearest door and ran to it with my son. Apparently only one door is open past a certain time. Banging on the main entrance door while holding a kid who can’t breathe on Christmas morning is apparently only good enough for a few awkward stares from security. Signs that say “use emergency entrance only” have no arrows or description of where the emergency exit is. After running around half the hospital’s sidewalk (a good portion uphill) while holding my son and the diaper bag I finally got in. I then waited in an empty waiting room, nobody at the desk, multiple nurses waltzing around in the back. Security made a call to someone once I asked if my kid had to stop breathing completely in order to be seen. Here’s the fun part… the nurse/receptionist/whoever it was that checked us in, sits there and stares at my kid for no joke a whole minute after all the necessary steps were completed as if she was giving him the “eye test” to see if he was sick enough to be seen. His breathing calmed down a lot since we had left the house, thankfully. Unfortunately your pale stare didn’t kill the croup virus he was diagnosed with but it did make me remember your face. I hope I get the chance to help you when you’re in need some day. I’ll take a good long look at you while you suffer, first. Once admitted, the doctors and nurses were fantastic, I will say.

Hey there

During our recent visit to the emergency room on 1/24/25 we brought our child in due to projectile vomiting. However, I found the process confusing and was uncertain about the treatment approach. Fortunately, my husband was able to help me understand the procedures and ask the necessary questions. Without his knowledge, I am not sure I would have received the clarification needed.

Once we were placed in a room, the only test performed was an ultrasound. After the results showed no abnormalities, no further tests were conducted. A resident, whom I believe was named Raphael, presented me with three options:
1. Discharge if I felt comfortable, as my son’s ultrasound was clear and he no longer appeared dehydrated.
2. Placement of an NG tube if I felt he would not be able to keep liquids down, which would require admission.
3. IV fluids and observation to ensure proper hydration.

Given my concerns about dehydration, I expressed my preference for an IV to ensure my son’s hydration status was properly assessed. At that point, I had not been provided with any lab work confirming hydration levels, and I was hesitant to take him home without verification.

Shortly after, I overheard a nurse’s reaction to my decision, which was both unsettling and unprofessional. A nurse, whose name I only partially caught (Melyssa) or the other nurse (with blonde hair didn’t catch her name) reacted negatively when the resident communicated my request. One of them exclaimed, “WHY?! We aren’t gonna put a line in him!!!” in a tone that was both irate and dismissive. This response made me feel uncomfortable and questioned whether my concerns were being taken seriously.

When I later asked Nurse Melyssa about the comment, she dismissed it… simply stating, “I don’t know.” Given that the resident had offered the IV as a legitimate option, I was troubled by the staff’s resistance and attitude toward my decision. Additionally, I was unsure why these options were presented to me without first obtaining lab work to assess my child’s hydration status. Ultimately, my husband had to advocate for the necessary testing, which we were eventually able to obtain.

I wanted to bring this experience to your attention because I felt that the level of communication, professionalism, and patient-centered care during our visit was lacking. As a concerned parent, I should not have felt dismissed or pressured when making a medical decision for my child, especially when the following options were provided by the medical team.

Sandra Penaranda

Horrible. We don’t live here, and unfortunately had to make a ER stop because my girl got very sick, non stop coughing/gagging. She has asthma so we thought it was an asthma trigger we weren’t able to control ourselves so we brought her to be checked out and to help her be comfortable. All the one star comments you are reading here seem to be the accurate experience you’ll get at this hospital. Infinite wait time hours in the waiting area, and once you’re inside a room.. I honestly think they’re following some type of medical code and have completely lost any sense of humanity. They did zero breathing treatments on her, knowing she needed one. And after 4+ hours just to hear “she’s good, we just have to let it run its course”… granted, she tested positive for RSV. And my daughter was uncomfortable, coughing and gagging. We just had to leave. Even waiting to get discharged was close to 45 min. It’s horrible. Not an ER I’d recommend you take your child to.

Bryan Soto Annable

I have been waiting 5 hours for a room to be available. Pretty much all night on the ER. Just cant understand it. Told them I was going to leave and all of a sudden now they took us in after 6 hours of wait. And who ever nurse taking care of us on the room has a weird attituted and seems like she dont like what she does. Doctor was pretty good and understanding. But the nurse was Pretty disappointing. Service was bad. This didnt used to be like this a few years back. This was the best ER for kids we ever went but nowdays dont know what happen.

Samantha Branchaud

My son was there with pneumonia last summer and they did a great job from the nurse at the ER to his inpatient stay. We were on vacation when he got sick and were grateful for their help. My son often asks if we can go back which is pretty rare for a hospital.

Andrea McKenzie

My son was admitted into the CDU , I will say wasn’t a huge fan of the hospital itself, the emergency room we were there for 4 hrs waiting and my son was very sick… but then once got brought back he was admitted we were there for 3 nights , I felt if I didn’t ask for half of the testing it wouldn’t of been done …there were two nurses though that the only reason the say was okay was due to them Eric and Danielle , you are incredible!!! Besides that honestly once we got up the actual floor it was AWFUL, my son was having issues and I asked for the nurse to get the dr she said she would and the dr never came thankfully my son got more comfortable and fell asleep because no one checked on him .. really being a peds unit you would expect better