Need a vent- my 8 y/o broke his collarbone at school and no-one noticed

[Dustyblue]

DS got into a scrap playing football with another kid. They seem to be 'frenemies' in that sometimes they play well together and sometimes they fight.

At pickup the teacher explained he'd been in a scuffle and he might have hurt his shoulder. Might? He's freaking collarbone was broken! He seemed to be in shock which I guessed might have stopped him complaining of the pain.

He's resting up now and doing ok. We spoke to the teacher & principal this morning and expressed that we really should've been called at lunchtime when it happened.

I get that they have a lot of kids to be looking out for but am so annoyed he was left in pain for that long.

Thanks for the vent!

I think if they didn’t fully see the incident and he didn’t make much complaint about pain then it’s not really their fault. If he had been complaining/crying/vomitting/loss consciousness/bleeding/swelling/excessive bruising them presumably they would have called. I’m very worried about my daughter starting prep next year as I know she won’t tell the teachers if she’s hurt or sick and they aren’t magic. If they ask are you ok and she says yes, they will probably take her at her word.

@Dustyblue My son aged 8 fell over the bars on his bike, came in and showed me a contorted arm, like he had two wrists, with a slight fresh graze on the skin

He'd tried to straighten it, according to his friends.

I felt dizzy just looking at it. 😵‍💫

No pain, according to him, but he had to stay in overnight at the local hospital for it to be reset under general anaesthetic, as his arm had shortened due too the muscles pulling the arm upwards.

This is what it looked like {the doctor gave DS the x ray and son has it at his house {he's a man now}

Not every broken bone hurts, allegedly. {pic from google}

@oakleaffy Far out, I feel dizzy reading your post!

Overnight at the hospital and reset under a GA is far worse than what my 8/old boy copped.

We're ok now. I think, because my boy has a genetic condition called Neurofibromatosis Type 1, which causes tumours on the nervous system or anywhere in the body, that I panicked more than I should have.

For all I knew, when the xray was done we might've found a fibroma. But no, just a displaced collarbone. Phew!

Managed to get him out for a walk today, and perhaps a treat of KFC for dinner!

As a first aider in a school, trying to figure out how badly kids are hurt can be a mine field. Some kids, even teens, will scream like they are mortally injured over a papercut. Other kids can get a really nasty injury and say nothing or play it down. If you send them home over something minor, there are parents that will complain. If you misjudge the severity and keep them in school, parents complain.

I'm autistic, I broke my collarbone at school and neither school or my parents noticed for about a week!

When my autistic ds was 5 he broke his wrist in the six weeks holiday. A few months later (once healed and cast off) he came out of school and said "I broke my wrist again " I took him a&e and yes it was broken. It had happened at lunch and he had spent the whole afternoon in pain but not told anyone.

I guess as his Mum I could tell immediately that something wasn't right.

I wouldn't be so confident in that. I've seen many posts here where parents haven't spotted broken bones in their children for days (and more than one parent being medically trained at that)!

D's broke his wrist at a kid's camp and they had a doctor there who missed it... Until a week later when I went to play tennis with him.
2nd time he broke it during games at school, teacher checked it and he finished playing football as goalkeeper, but I could tell as soon as he came home... Because he was hiding his arm from me.

He has a high pain threshold and doesn't like fuss so he deliberately hides it. Even after I'd warned the games teacher this a few weeks later he got an inch deep gash from a stud and managed to hide he was dripping blood through two lessons.

I don't blame the school at all.

Something similar happened to me. Went to pick my son up and teacher said he had hurt himself in the playground. He said checked his foot bit of pain, no swelling or marks so was limping a bit but wasn't screaming in pain. He told me at pick up and then child started moaning it was so painful. Got him home and he was still moaning so up to A and E. The doctor who saw him was more then happy and said nothing wrong. 2 days later hospital wrong turned out he had fractured his foot and as he had been walking on it they couldn't do anything .

In fairness they should of told you he had hurt himself and then you could of made the decision about what to do.

It took us three days to work out dd really had broken her are. She fell doing an activity m. Still had movement and seemed ok with an ice pack and calpol. The first aider said probably a sprain.

Reader, it wasn’t…

Never lost any mobility though. She was playing piano in her brace the day after the x-ray.

another time we thought she’d broken her foot, went to A&E and it was just a bad knock. Sometimes you just can’t tell.

I broke my collarbone years ago, and walked around with it for a couple of hours before realising that I needed to get medical help. I had broken my wrist at the same time as well. It isn't always blindingly obvious. I think I was in shock but the people around me didn't realise either.

When my then 4yo broke her arm, she cried for 5 minutes. We only knew there was something worse than a usual bump as she was even quieter than usual.

I broke my radius and ulna very badly in a horse riding accident. I had zero pain and wouldn’t have realised except my arm was flapping about like a second wrist about three inches above my actual wrist. It’s incredible how the pain can be blocked by the shock. Hurt like mad afterwards.

I broke my collar bone as a child, my mum only realised something was wrong when I couldn’t lie down at bedtime.