School didn’t call me about a broken bone

[Tigerbreadbum]

DS (8) fell at school this morning around 10am, witnessed by a teacher and TA. Was in a lot of pain, couldn’t wiggle fingers let alone write. They don’t contact me at all. We are in an and e and it’s broken and he may need surgery. I’m fuming he’s been in agony all day with no pain relief, and potentially made it worse.

what on earth do I say to school? I’m absolutely livid. He only started there in January due to physical violence from classmates at his old school. We were both so happy with the new school and now I’m fucking furious! Is there someone I should be informing, council maybe?

Awful I'd be fuming

I broke my arm in a fall at school when I was 8. I didn't actually tell my teacher but she realised I was upset. She looked at my arm, asked "Does it normally bend like that?" and the school called my mum. We had classes of 40 children in those days but perhaps crying in class was less common? I'm glad OP's son has such a lovely friend but it seems the school need a bit more first aid training.

I had the same experience with ds, he fell on the ice at school during playtime & landed on his outstretched arm. He went in & told the teacher who just glanced at it & told him it was nothing. I got a phone call at lunchtime saying he had fallen but was OK, if anything ,he was being a drama queen complaining it hurt, but in their opinion, he didn't need to be collected. At hometime when he came out, he was grey & sweating, his wrist was swollen. I took him straight to A & E, where after an Xray it was diagnosed, he had fractured it & was put in a backslab pot until the next day. He told me his teacher had shouted at him because his writing was a mess, (he is right handed) she had grabbed hold of his hand & told him to change the way he held his pen. I rang the next morning to tell the school he wouldn't be in as he had a fractured wrist & to raise a complaint over the fact he had begged them to ring me to collect him, they had told him that I said he had to stay at school, when in fact they had said he was being a drama queen & there was nothing wrong. School denied everything & refused to accept the teacher had lied.

Hear, hear! (ex teacher here!)

Your poor boy and his wonderful friend

Best of luck with his recovery

Exact same happened to me. Teacher walked him to me at normal school pick up time with his arm resting on a pillow. "Doesn't seem great , you might want to see a doctor". Spent the night in a and e as it needed surgery was so badly broken.

It's definitely possible to miss a broken bone in a child. My friend who is a GP failed to diagnose a broken leg in her own child, and to make it worse, her DH didn't think it was serious either and he's an A&E Consultant! So I don't think the teachers can neccessarily be blamed for not knowing a bone was broken, but I do think they were wrong to, by the sounds of things, fail to respond at all to a child in pain for a significant period of time and not to inform the parents.
I am not surprised you are angry OP and you should definitely speak to the school about it once your DS has had his surgery. I hope the operation goes well and that he is soon on the mend.

It's odd that they didn't err on the side of caution and call the OP. We usually hear the opposite on here, and parents being contacted and asked to pick children up for really minor things. Better to be on the safe side, I've have thought, when he was in pain and said so and unable to write. I'd certainly want to know what happened and what their procedures are.

It's particularly galling if this is an attendance issue. That schools are so worried about sending an actually injured child home as it might affect their figures. Or they see their pupils as a problem to be dealt with, and who always just make stuff up to get out of lessons.

It sounds as if they need first aid training.

I would be livid as well.

At the end of the day they should have trained first aiders that should have checked him out and as soon as he can't move his fingers they should have known a trip to hospital or doctors was needed.

It's there job to be the parent whilst those kids are in school, that means responding to any first aid needs. I get called when my kid has bumped something badly even if they are ok to not be picked up

I think parents need to understand many kids (especially younger ones) are CONSTANTLY whining , I feel sick, my tummy hurts, I have hurt my arm, I have hurt my toe, I have hurt my finger, showing you tiny old scabs. My head aches, my wrist hurts, i stubbed my toe. I twisted my ankle....this that the other.... Then there are the kids that say nothing at all.
I would say out of 150 kids in a sports club I m associated with, we always have at least 2 off with a fractured arm or wrist for example, and we have noticed it is more frequent since covid.No idea why.
If it was easy to spot a fracture, xray machines would not be needed

..
You are thinking about your child on isolation, but they are one of what in a big school might be dozens of kids slipping and tripping every day running round the playground.
The only exception is the kid who was sent to ask home with concussion, which is inexcusable

At the end of the day they should have trained first aiders that should have checked him out and as soon as he can't move his fingers they should have known a trip to hospital

Kids lie for attention and to get out of work!

You keep referring to it as ' bone' without saying which one.I am guessing it was just a finger

This is why I always insisted my child had a phone with her at school. I just have zero faith in schools at the moment which includes addressing bullying and keeping my child physically safe.

So they only do reports for head injuries. I suppose, on that basis, getting an arm hacked off is fine and not serious.

I am shocked. It is apparent that your son had a badly broken arm and if his little schoolfriend knew he was in lots of pain and couldn't carry his bag, it defies belief that his teachers thought it fine to leave a child at school who was crying and couldn't write after a bad fall and who plainly had an injured arm. First aiders shouldn't have been even assessing this - it needed a doctor. Well, actually a first year medical student could probably pick it was broken and dole out some painkillers.

I am not in the UK. I can't think of any school in my country that wouldn't be on the telephone to the parents immediately after such an incident. I don't quite understand why people in the UK are so prepared to put up with a school system that seems focussed on attendance at all costs and children put in isolation for uniform breaches (involving it seems mainly strange polyester garments) and a health service that is crumbling. I once mentioned working as a doctor in the UK to my son and he fell about laughing, pointing out the many UK doctors who would rather work here and he had no intention of ever working in the NHS.

My other son took a fall in a gym class - landed heavily on his wrist. It was a complete accident and nobody's fault. I didn't get notified though it turned out that he had broken one of the bones in his wrist but it took an x-ray to show that after the GP thought it was no more than a sprain. I think it was absolutely fine to not notify me immediately after such an injury because it simply looked like a sprained wrist and his wrist was a bit sore. This is not the case with your son.

If the health system, like a poster above advocates, takes the approach that certain people lie for attention and to get out of work, we'd just have to leave it till they were really sick and needed a crash resuscitation or sepsis set in. I'm not sure that waiting for hours and hours in A & E is a special treat that children strive for either. From the description it sound like a broken arm bone and not a finger.

As a former primary school teacher I would have called you for this and accompanied him to you at home time.

However I will admit that I had an angry parent in to see me one morning whose child had badly bruised her fingers during pe the previous afternoon. In this instance though she didn't tell me she'd been hurt, and I noticed at home time she seemed subdued and asked her if she was OK, she assured me she was. In my defence on this occasion I genuinely didn't know and therefore not sure what I could have done differently. In OP's case though the child was clearly in pain and unable to join in activities/complete work so I can't see a justification for not even informing the parent.

Op, this happened to me when I was your child's age. Broke my foot in PE first thing in the morning. No one listened to me and I spent all day in pain unable to walk and noone believing me. School apologised and things improved (I broke another limb a year later and they called my mother straight away). You're not over reacting, you should report this. Hope surgery goes ok. X

Something similar happened to my son in infant school except the teachers / playground assistants did not see the accident or know it had happened until they saw my son being helped by other children. Even then they did not call me straight away - they considered him not crying enough for his arm to be broken but it was broken after an xray.
The thing is - the school would know they have done wrong - if you calm down you can leverage this is a positive way to get your son to have an even better relationship with the school. So rather than approaching them in an angry manner, do it more as a "I just want to sense check because I am surprised...and I just want to avoid this happening again..." sort of sensible parent approach.

Poor thing!
I would feed back so they can learn from it but it isn’t always obvious.couldnt he have gone to first aid?

tbh my dd fell over at primary school and school phoned me and suggested I take her for an x ray in case it was broken. When I got dd she was in pain but not crying all the time or that severely and I thought school were being over cautious, but they were right and I was surprised!

It's pretty bad. I can't believe that none of those teachers or TAs has seen a child with a broken limb before - once you've seen it, it's much easier to recognise the signs.

My child broke their arm at Nursery- school's actions were impeccable. I however got roundly told off for having an out of date mobile number as my contact 😳

In my defence, this was the time when people still used landlines a lot, and I didn't work and lived round the corner from the school. I just happened to have gone out that afternoon locally - my sixth sense told me to get home fast and check the messages though. Oh the guilt 😫

Inform the school head teacher first thing either by email of phone call. Email preferably as it's documented.
Firstly you want to advise them of the situation and your son facing surgery this morning.
Then ask to see a copy of the incident report, all slips trips and falls should be recorded even if an accident report not completed.
If this has not been done then ask for a full investigation to be carried out and you would like to understand why you weren't informed and why a child who couldn't write or carry his own bag was left in pain for 5 hours.
They were wrong not to listen to him and not contact you.
Hope you and your son are ok and the surgery goes well 🩷

I definitely would email the head to explain what's happened. That you expect the school to ring a parent next time that happens.

I can't believe that none of those teachers or TAs has seen a child with a broken limb before - once you've seen it, it's much easier to recognise the signs.

And yet doctors, and even x-ray machines, can miss broken bones - even ones requiring surgery.
So no - it isn't always obvious at all.

I missed my own child's broken foot. The first x ray missed it too. It was only on return due to continued pain it was picked up.

Likewise I broke my elbow. Two x-rays missed it a week apart, focusing only on the initial dislocation. It was the third and fourth x-rays that finally dishonoured it (and my finger too) were broken. So despite an awful lot of pain it was missed by several people and machines.

I don't think broken bones are as easy to spot as people think. My friend's 3yo broke her arm on going down a slide. Her mum didn't seek medical attention for 3 days because LO didn't seem in that much pain. My friend turned her ankle on a kerb waiting to start a half marathon, she knew she'd hurt herself, but still ran the race and that turned out to be broken. My mum recently broke her elbow but didn't get it xrayed until it wasn't feeling any better 2 weeks later...

Obviously the school have questions to answer, but OP needs to hear their version of events too.

I posted this at the start of the thread but should add that the person who broke their elbow and didn't notice for days was a consultant surgeon! As if TAs are "easily" going to be able to identify broken bones when HCPs can't even do that reliably without xraying