It’s an A&E one…

[LawyeredUp]

I genuinely never thought I’d start one of these threads, but here I am!

I don’t think it needs a trip to A&E, but could do with the reassurance.

DS is 2 (27 months). He was picked up from nursery by his nanny and got the bus home. Unfortunately the bus was packed so when getting off, she went forwards with the pushchair rather than backwards. And the pushchair fell off the bus with DS in it.

He cried for a couple of hours and couldn’t put any weight on his legs. Once I got home, he calmed down with me after around half an hour, but was still upset at times. He started to cheer up a bit, and I gave him some calpol, after which he was back to himself.

Except he can’t put weight on his legs. He can move them and as we were playing whilst he was lying down, he was happily and easily kicking them around (calpol would have kicked in). I’ve bent them both in different angles and there’s no issue, but he’s not standing. I think his legs are simply sore, as surely it would be obvious if it was a break right?

No obvious head injury (told there were no marks on him right after) and once he calmed down and the calpol kicked in, he had food. He’s still up now (I’ve wanted to keep an eye on him) and for all intents and purposes, he’s himself, apart from not being able to stand properly. It’s a big pushchair and he was buckled in, but I think the shock together with hurting his legs was hugely distressing for him and also he needed his mum, hence why he was upset for so long.

I don’t think it needs A&E, as I’m not too worried about his legs. Maybe see how he is in the morning?

You don’t need anymore judgmental advice but I do think it’s bad that the nanny didn’t take the child straight to A&E herself as she had no way of knowing that he didn’t hit his head as she didn’t see how he landed under the pram.

I don’t know a single person who has been contacted by ss after a trip to a&e. I don’t expect they’ve got time to contact every child of an age to be mobile with a simple limb fracture! it’s not particularly unusual to realise something is wrong a few hours after the incident either.
accidents happen, glad he’s ok

If it makes you feel better op when my niece was 2 she had been hobbling about for 2days, no crying or saying her leg was sore. Sister took her to a&e on the 3rd day and turned out she had a hairline fracture to her thigh. But she didn’t even get a splint. Doctor told my sister because she wasn’t crying in pain because of it she was just to carry on as normal. Oh and she fell at the play park. Hope your wee one is feeling better

I’m not sure singing “wheels on the bus” to him immediately following bus related and wheel related trauma is a kindly motherly hing to do 😉🤣🤣🤣🤣🤷🏼‍♀️

Having had two of my children sent home from A&E with broken bones (1 arm, 1 leg) there is no judgement from me, even the doctors get it wrong sometimes.

I’m a paediatric nurse and when my youngest DD was about 5 yrs her elder brother sat on her back and played horses on the day of the Grand National. Her arm gave way, she cried but we didn’t think much about it and she went to bed as normal. The next day she had pain and we took her to A&E - greenstick fracture. I was mortified but the consultant told me it happens all the time in kids and not to beat myself up. The issue is if parents don’t attend A&E at all if minor injuries symptoms persist or they delay in cases of severe injury.

My own GP told me once that her little girl had fractured her arm and found out 3 days later after her complaining of her sore arm!!! I’m glad that you did get them seen and sorted but don’t beat yourself up about it. We’re only human x

Is it normal behaviour for your child to cry a few hours after a fall or other minor accident? Mine were rather for a good cry and then some sniffing and then all better now. So yes, I would see a doctor, especially with him not bearing weight. He could have spinal dammage. I wonder why you are hesitating anyway.

Thanks for update! I was thinking of you earlier! Ah I hope your both doing ok
and sending get well soon wishes to your little one x x x

havent read any of the horrible msg’s I never do as soon as I get a ‘neggy’ vibe I scroll past it. But from reading your posts I’m sure if you hadn’t of posted yesterday and this morning your little one still wasn’t weight bearing you’d of gone to AE/GP.

Yep, this
i was at university with a chap whose dad was a consultant anaesthetist and mum an ex nurse.
he had a bit of a crooked ankle cos he’d fallen as a 7 year old, and despite him crying and being in pain his dad told him if he’d injured himself properly he (dad) would know …took them 2 weeks to get him x- rayed . He was fine, rugby player etc but always a crocked ankle
thn while at uni in our second year he was taken extremely ill. We got him to hospital, dad and mum were rung (form phone box as in those days no mobiles or even outbound calls in student flats) and said “well let us know how he is the morning then”. They were around 2 hours away by car. My flat mate (his girlfriend) and I took shifts during night. At 3am he was rushed with failing kidney to theatre and had it removed. Transpired he had kidney issues since childhood didn’t it🤦‍♀️ mum and dad rocked up about 6am in panic because they’d just assumed that urinary track and pain in kidney region wasn’t a sign that his already problematic kidney could possibly be an issue

a consultant anaesthetist!

And a different one- I fell over at work in France (on work visit). Got sent to a clinic as I was in a lot of pain about 3 hours after and couldn’t get my shoe on, they x- rayed my foot . Told me (translation needed) nowt wrong, sent me away in just a plastic overshoe, no crutch or even walking stick. I hobbled all the way home on my flight next day even standing in a bucket flight queue. I was literally crying with pain. But it wasn’t broken. 10 weeks of repeated GP visits saying I needed physio as I was in such pain, I gave up and went private. Physio asked if they’d given me a pressure bearing x-ray in France. Non I said . So sent for right x-ray. 3 broken metatarsals. It took another 10 weeks to heal the fractures in a boot, then another 16 weeks of physio as muscles had wasted, and plantar fasciitis in other foot by then. Foot is deformed, and I’ve had all sorts of issues with it.

That’s off the back of an elbow fracture 2 years previously. Again at work. Occ help sent me to A&E . Nice young doctor asked me to rotate my arm. I didn’t scream or cry but said clearly it was painful. He said I’d just strained it. No x-ray . Assume I wasn’t screaming enough. Drove home on a four hour journey next day that took me 7 hours in excruciating pain. Got emergency physio through work- physio sent me to A&E immediately with a note that said “give this nice women an x-ray this time”. Yep it was broken

so, with all due respect to the witch hunter generals on this board, making crap decisions happens to us all. Even medically trained ones. It doesn’t need a pile on here to make her feel guilty and shame her. Shame on you all for assuming you have super powers that mean you’ll never screw up a single parenting decision.

The nanny has learnt her lesson too. Yes, it could have been a lot worse, yes she panicked …about half people here would panic while half might have done something more logical- but that’s doubtful. When people get scared (which she would have done watching a baby rip out) they go to flight, fight, freeze mode. And the Brian shuts down into “reptilian mode”- that means the “executive thinking skills” like rationality, planning, logic stop. Literally stop. The only people’s whose brains won’t do that is those trained to deal with events so that it is instinctive what to do. Hence why emergency workers go over protocols over and over until it does become instinctive. If you think you’ll be cool, calm and collected with your win child in such a situation, or be able to explain with clarity what happened then 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

yep, nanny made a mistake in taking pram off forward. It could have been costly. It wasn’t but a child was injured. They will heal. I don’t know that as a mum I was ver told explicitly that you don’t push a pram off a bus forward, jeez you see it all the time. If MNs want to went their spleen, maybe do something more useful like raise a post or even a bloody campaign about informing users of pushchairs of this risk rather than beating up the OP and her nanny

really, this thread is full of people who need to remove the speck from their own eye first.

Brain not Brian 🤣🤷🏼‍♀️

As a nurse I would definitely advise getting dc checked. I've seen kids in A&E who seemed relatively unharmed but had what we called greenstick fractures or incomplete/ crack fractures. Children 0-5 years can get them and sometimes they go unnoticed. My db fell in school age 5. He seemed ok but weeks afterwards he started to limp. My dm took him our GP and it turned out he had fractured his leg and developed an infection in it. My dm was mortified as she was a nurse. Better safe than sorry. The best time to go to A&E is between 8-9am. It should be fairly quiet.

im glad you went to a and e OP, but next time do not question it and go.

id have gone as soon as I got home.

You will probably get a call of the health visitor at the very least.

Glad to hear your updates and that he'll be OK. I think you dealt with it amazingly, very calm and rational throughout. We all know how awful it is when your child has an accident and you're not there

Wow bet she's sorry she even posted on here, thought this was here to help/support!?😕

They're used for adults in CT who just need a bit of support so that the person, clothing or any cables don't get caught when the scan table moves.

I've never seen them used for x-rays in many years of being a radiographer, both in adults and in a paediatric hospital. I wouldn't want to leave a wriggly child on the x-ray table just secured by a Velcro strap. The thought of a child falling from the xray bed onto a hard, cold concrete floors doesn't bear thinking about.

Meant to add, an adult holding a child is much safer and the child is calmer than leaving the child on the table on their own.

A parent is ideal, but I understand that you can't in this instance, so would have to wait for staff to come from ED

I’m sorry your son has a fracture and hope he makes a good recovery.

You made a mistake, all parents do at some point. Nobody ever likes to be accused of bad parenting but I’m sure you will be more vigilant in future.

@LawyeredUp I'm glad your DS is ok, it reminds me of when my DSis was 5, and hurt her ankle playing rounders. DM had a quick look, gave it a "magic kiss" and sent her back to play. The next day, DSis could barely walk and after a trip to A&E, her ankle was found to be broken - much to the embarrassment of our DM, who was the Sister in charge of that very A&E department!

Even if it did it’d likely be a phone-call to OP. That’s how I would handle it if I came onto my caseload when I was a SW. These things happen, SW are well versed in these scenarios.

Thank you for the more supportive and understanding messages. It’s very kind of you. It has helped after how the thread initially made me feel.

It is also helpful to hear all the stories of toddlers who had broken bones and seemed fine. I think some posters got it into their head that DS was crying all night and I dismissed, but he calmed down soon after I got home and was happy and himself for the rest of the evening (to the Pp who criticised me for singing wheels on the bus, he was singing wheels on the bus and doing all the movements - I guess I should have just ignored him as that’s what a good mother is supposed to do…)

The posts from other parents who have to do regular A&E visits really resonate too. You do become somewhat more hard nosed about whether something needs a trip to A&E or can be managed at home, whereas parents who don’t have to deal with ongoing health issues and very regular A&E visits probably have a lower threshold. And that is what clearly affected my decision making.

Also, any suggestion that the accident was anything than an accident needs to be dismissed. I do not doubt in any way it was an accident and I do not blame her in any way. She adores DS and I can completely see how she panicked when it happened rather than remembering in detail where the pushchair hit the floor, what parts of his body made contact with the floor, etc. DS was strapped in and the handlebar was up - otherwise I’m sure there would have been a much worse outcome.

After countless A&E visits and several hospital admissions to the high dependency unit, a couple times of which I feared I would lose him, I’ve learnt I need to stay calm when anything happens for DS’s sake, as he needs me to keep him calm whilst he’s distressed to avoid him becoming traumatised. But just because I come across calm and collected, it doesn’t mean I’m not panicking on the inside or having a cry when he’s not near me.

While I’d probably have gone straight to A&E, it’s a tough call @LawyeredUp .. it is drummed into us not to waste the precious time of doctors and A&E these days… and we all convince ourselves it’s not necessary to put the doctors out.. I wouldn’t have waited until morning encase it was spinal damage… but I can see why you did.. we want so badly to believe they’ll be ok later… or after a sleep!
my daughter was very poorly one Sunday and I didn’t act because it was during covid and I felt the doctors would just say it was viral and pack me off anyway…. When she was worse Monday Monday morning I called the surgery…. But even then I couldn’t get an appointment till 4pm!!! Following the appointment we were sent straight to A&E and spent a week in hospital on ICU & hourly monitoring… it was awful & I felt so guilty she’d got so poorly! We all make poor judgements at times.. it happens!
I'm glad your son is ok, why didn’t the bus lower itself to the raised curb?? Aren’t buses designed now to lower for pushchairs and wheelchairs? Maybe she should ask the driver to put the ramp out in future?!

Good God, some of the replies on this thread are positively unhinged. The gleeful posts about safeguarding concerns being raised, and health visitors and/or social services being called... incredible stuff.

I'm glad your baby is OK, OP, and I think you did the right thing letting him sleep in his bed and go to A&E in the morning. You seem really level-headed and thoughtful, unlike many of the people posting here.

Sorry to hear about this, and about the fracture. The nanny must be feeling awful, and you and DS too.

When I was a child I fractured my arm. My dad was in the "it's fine" camp, but my mum insisted we go down. The doctors were equally split and eye rolled a bit for time wasting. Then they looked at the xray. Ah, yes, it's fractured.

I hope you're all OK.

DS had a similar accident at the same age. I did take him to A&E

I knew there was something wrong with his leg but they would only x-ray his head (which he hadn't hit as I saw the fall).

I took him back again the next day when they DID x-ray his leg which was indeed fractured.

I should have complained of course but I was very young at the time.

Sometimes even the experts can't tell.