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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think maybe these school kids should have been supervised more closely?

76 replies

VivaLeBeaver · 09/07/2015 22:59

Dunno, maybe IABU but am a bit shaken up by this.

Was out walking in a forest with the dog and pass a group of approx 40 school kids out with their teachers all on mountain bikes. I'm going in the opposite direction on the forest track.

About a mile down the track one of these kids who has turned round and come back in the same direction im going in passes me going way too fast. Came round a big bend and lost it - major crash. He's in the grass opposite me and I realise he's badly hurt as he sat up and started screaming he was spraying blood out his face. Properly spraying.

There was another kid just behind him who said she would go "and find Miss". She disappears back up the hill.

I'm left for a good ten minutes with this kid who is pouring blood, drifting in and out of concisousness and totally in shock after making some fairly large puncture holes in himself and taking most of the skin off his face.

I just keep thinking if I hadn't happened to be there it would have been awful for those kids, they were Year 8. Not a busy forest either, I passed one other person on a six mile walk so total chance there was someone there.

Just seems the teacher was a long way away for what is a moderately dangerous activity......especially at the speed he was going at.

OP posts:
Mamus · 10/07/2015 11:01

Do some of you come to aibu with the sole intention of picking holes in every post and tripping the op up wherever you can? Confused

Poor kid. There should have been more staff, I suppose, but at the same time even kids need to see that they should take responsibility for their actions. Go too fast and duh, you might get hurt! Hopefully the school will look at whether they could have done anything differently and hopefully the boy will be ok.

Donthate · 10/07/2015 11:02

Yanbu a schoolboy had severe life limiting head injuries mountain biking near us. It was touch and go whether he would survive. The teachers were taking a big risk.

IKnowIAmButWhatAreYou · 10/07/2015 11:10

Do some of you come to aibu with the sole intention of picking holes in every post and tripping the op up wherever you can?

Ah sorry, I think you're looking for PAWM - different board I'm afraid....

(Please Agree With Me BTW)

Mamus · 10/07/2015 11:29

You do understand the difference between disagreeing with someone and going out of your way to imply that they are untruthful, or to ignore the actual question asked in order to try and score some sort of imaginary points off the op, don't you? It is quite straightforward to say "actually OP, YABU here" without this weird attempt to be the MN answer to Sherlock Holmes and cunningly unmask the OP as (gasp) someone not being entirely accurate on the internet. I can understand the desire to call out blatant goady fuckery or obvious fantasists but am really confused by the amount of petty and often weirdly aggressive challenging of sometimes quite tiny details. It's very odd behaviour.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 10/07/2015 12:34

I couldn't agree more, Mamus.

20:20 hindsight - especially when applied to a situation you did not experience or have to deal with - is a wonderful thing.

I think a few people need to stop trying to demonstrate their superiority at Viva's expense.

Toooldtobearsed · 10/07/2015 12:49

Jesus, I hope I never run into some of you in real life! I simply could not stand up to the sheer perfection some of you obviously are.

OP, you did a grand job! I would have done exactly the same, and if it was my son you had been comforting, I would have been very appreciative.

Accidents happen, it could have happened with a teacher riding a few metres behind him, I suppose, so it would be a shame to see activities like these stopped on elf and safety grounds.

I often do not have my mobile with me on walks, and could not have called for an ambulance.

Original poster
VivaLeBeaver · 10/07/2015 14:09

Well I still think I made the right decision not to call an ambulance. If he'd been in the same condition he was in initially ten minutes down the line then maybe he'd have needed one. But he wasn't struggling breathing and like I said in my 4th post on the thread I did think that maybe the unresponsiveness was due to shock. But it does take some time to check that out and be sure. So while it was initially scary he continued to improve and with my excellent first aid skills the bleeding was a lot less. Grin

There also the point that we were totally in the wilds. I couldn't have told an ambulance which forest track we were on as the one I was planning to take was closed due to logging. I knew roughly where in the forest I was and where the road I was aiming for was but didn't know the location enough to direct an ambulance. I did know that we're over an hour away from the nearest hospital, probably 90 mins. So even if he had needed an ambulance it would have made sense to wait for the teacher who probably knew what track she was on. Neither she nor the other teacher at the road seemed to think he needed an ambulance so again I think I made the right decision.

He may well have needed stitches but he would have been quicker getting to hospital via car not ambulance. He wasn't struggling breathing, he didn't have broken bones. He'd been wearing a helmet and I hadn't seen him bang the top or back of his head. When he was answering questions he was coherent. I really don't think he needed an ambulance. But then I suppose a lot of people do waste the ambulance services time with unnecessary calls.......

Anyway, like I said earlier I didn't start the thread to discuss whether or not he needed an ambulance.....though some people seem very fixated about that but don't seem to have an opinion on whether or not it's unusual for kids on school trips to be that out of sight of a teacher. Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
VivaLeBeaver · 10/07/2015 14:13

And mammatj as I'm sure you realised I meant would you be happy with your dd being a nasty, spiteful cow to others rather than whether she'd call an ambulance or not......

OP posts:
LazyLouLou · 10/07/2015 14:30

To be scrupulously fair, Viva, I got hung up on the ambulance bit after your first post because of your description of his condition... but I also said you were NU, as it must have been a shock for you.

Your OP was quite graphic and did make it sound as though, at that moment in time, you thought he was very badly injured. That is what I suspect many posters reacted to.

Anyway, YWNBU. Hopefully all involved are now fine!

cardibach · 10/07/2015 14:37

Actually OP you did say he was 'spraying' and 'pouring' blood and that he was 'drifting in and out of consciousness' and that he'd taken 'most of the skin off his face'. These aren't 'walking wounded' injuries, they are all pretty serious. I think you may have exaggerated a bit because it felt very dramatic and scary at the time (which is understandable) and also felt like it supported your IABU point. It doesn't, really - they either should or shouldn't have been better supervised and any injuries which may or may not have been sustained are irrelevantly to that, being determined by luck, really. Neither I, you, nor anyone on this thread can answer the IABU as we don't really know how closely they were supervised.

SauvignonBlanche · 10/07/2015 14:53

That sounds horrible Viva, hope you're OK? Flowers
It does sound like the adult supervision was too far away.

sugar21 · 10/07/2015 14:56

Oh I see, that sounds like a nightmare. Hope the boy is alright now. I only asked what he had fallen on because I thought that there may have been some glass around. I fell off my bike when I was 14 and somehow landed on a broken beer bottle so had to get sutures in my leg. This was because I had been doing wheelies and showing off in front of the boys. Still got the scar on my leg, and a really good telling off from my DF. Never did wheelies again after that experience..

Original poster
VivaLeBeaver · 10/07/2015 14:56

And he was. As he sat up and exhaled sharply (I guess he'd held his breath as he slid along) there was a spray of blood out his mouth and nose. His nose continued to pour blood fairly quickly until I managed to stop the bleeding. So yes once the majority of the bleeding had stopped and he seemed to be feeling better Id have said he was walking wounded.

I'm not sure the ambulance would have been impressed if Id rung up and said oh he feels a bit faint and shook up, he's had a bad nosebleed but that's stopped, he's got substantial grazing as well as some deeper cuts but they don't seem to be bleeding as much now. I'm sure they'd have been delighted to come out for that. But then I'm a person who considered myself walking wounded when I knew I'd broken my back and tried to walk two miles to hospital and I knew I'd broken it as I heard it snap. So maybe I'm not the best judge of when to call an ambulance. Grin

No you're right I don't know how closely they were been supervised but I do know the nearest teacher was ten mins away and the injured boy didn't have his teachers phone number on him as I asked him at one point while waiting thinking maybe I could contact her to see where she was. I know when dd has been on school trips and they've been allowed away from the teacher they've all taken a teachers mobile number for emergencies.

OP posts:
Original poster
VivaLeBeaver · 10/07/2015 14:59

sugar that sounds painful. No glass about, it's a real sharp shale type stuff on the forest tracks though. Must admit if I was mountain biking here I wouldn't be in shorts and tshirts which I see a lot of people wearing. Id rather a little bit of protection for my knees!

OP posts:
jorahmormont · 11/07/2015 16:41

Spoke to DSis this morning, apparently it was a boy out of her class! Described the situation to her and she said yep. She also said a lad - not sure if the same one - broke his arm in two places during the activity.

Nibledbyducks · 11/07/2015 18:29

I'm sure the ambulance service would have been fine about it if you said he had those injuries as a result if his face colliding with a tree at speed, he could potentially have had a head or neck injury. If one of our cadets was presented with that scenario I would expect them to immobilise his head and neck and only let go once someone had done a proper examination and neuro observations. Granted in this case it wasn't needed, but it's always best to err in the side of caution.

Original poster
VivaLeBeaver · 11/07/2015 19:39

Small world Jorah, hope hes recovering.

OP posts:
Original poster
VivaLeBeaver · 11/07/2015 19:40

nibled he didn't collide with a tree though.

OP posts:
Rosieposy4 · 11/07/2015 21:15

staff ratio def sounds way too low, have just returned from adventure type trip with y8s and our maximum ratios were 1:8. hope you have recovered from the shock and the boy from his bangs

shouldnthavesaid · 11/07/2015 21:17

Am I right in thinking you're a midwife or have I got the wrong person Viva?

FWIW I work in neurosurgery and wouldn't have called an ambulance unless there was a chance of head or neck injuries, or of the bleeding didn't stop. I know what you mean by drifting - like fainting and not quit coming to, straight away? I have done that before and seen it at work numerous times. Worrying but not life threatening unless a chance of serious head injury (if he'd landed and thumped his head on something as he went down I guess) or something.

Hope he's alright now, mouth must be so sore.

Original poster
VivaLeBeaver · 11/07/2015 21:44

Yep I am a midwife. Never been a nurse though I guess I'm used to emergencies, blood loss, etc. ALS instructor as well and done LBR HDU training. So yes, I do like to think Id be able to decide whether or not to call an ambulance correctly even if ive got no a&e experience, Smile

OP posts:
Nibledbyducks · 12/07/2015 03:41

Apologies Viva, with your background I'm sure you know exactly what to do! You have the clinical skills to make that judgement, not everyone does though, so I tend to tell people to be cautious, (I'm only a lowly advanced first aider with St John) Smile

Original poster
VivaLeBeaver · 12/07/2015 08:26

No worries Nibbled. And St John First Aiders aren't lowely at all. If you'd been there the other day Id have let you taken over! Grin

OP posts:
mintpoppet · 12/07/2015 09:52

Thousands of children that age bike to school unsupervised everyday. Some are not sensible. We had a primary child bike to school the other day who got into a bad scrape. Kids hurt themselves.

I do think the OP is dramatising it though. In and out of being conscious etc. If that had been the case she would have rang an ambulance. Simples.

merrymouse · 12/07/2015 10:02

Some parents let their children ride bikes unsupervised when they really don't have the maturity, training or experience to do so. Higher levels of risk assessment and responsibility are expected when a school is running a trip.