Do you think my son's wrist is broken?

[WilkinsonL]

My son is 11 and is in Year 6. He plays football at lunch.

He fell over and was rolling around on the floor telling his friend to get a teacher. She came over - not a teacher, but the lunch assistant. Told him to get up, he got up and she asked if he was okay now and he said that his wrist was hurting. She said he should go to medical. He goes off to medical with his friend. The lady in medical is the receptionist, but she has done a first aid course. She was touching it and was asking if he could feel her and he said yes, but it was hurting. She said "I think you'll be fine" and he said no but it hurts and can't move it properly, she said that's why happens after an injury and that if he broke it he would be in absolute tears, so she knows it isn't

He was sent to his classroom, his teacher even said it looked a little odd and my son said that he had already been to medical and she said it was fine, so his teacher just left it. I got him at the end of the day and he was okay, gave him some pain relief and seemed alright, he said it was still a bit sore. I suggested to the medical lady (as I went to the office when I got him as his teacher gave me a medical slip, which means there is a recorded accident) that maybe I should get it X-Rayed... She told me to definitely not worry about that and it will just be wasting A and E time and resources as he clearly isn't in distress. I'm not medically trained at all. So I did take her word for it... He has woken up today, with it looking a little bit bruised and not able to properly move it. I was going to take him, but his dad said that I shouldn't worry because school said it was fine. He has been okay today, he has just been watching films, not moving it, but now I'm not sure if I should just go against everyone and take him???

What do you think...? Sorry if I'm coming across a bit stupid, I have never dealt with a broken bone before! He has never even needed to go to a and e.

[MissMoo22]

Hopefully you've contacted school today and told them the outcome.

Kids at your sons age can be hard to figure out when it comes to their level of pain. I have 2 boys and if you ask them on a scale of 1 to 10 how sore it is, they'd pick 11, even for a scratch. And then they also love the drama of a visit to A&E, x-rays, hospital stays etc so can milk it sometimes making me question every time they say something really hurts. I would probably have questioned whether to take your son to A&E aswell but the picture did look like something wasn't quite right. Glad he has been sorted now though and hopefully no need for pins :(

[sazzlesb]

Definitely get an x-ray. My 10 year old daughter broke her wrist last summer doing playground gymnastics - I happened to be there at the time and could tell straight away that it wasn't just a sprain - the wrist was at a strange angle as your photo suggests and the level of crying was very out of character. I also broke my wrist as a teenager and had no idea at the time (possibly as I was enjoying myself at a party at the time!) - woke up in agony the next day.

[TheGhostOfBarryFairbrother]

Hope it's not too sore.

What did the school have to say this morning?

[NatalieRushman]

Your poor son. I would absolutely ask that the school make sure the receptionist updates her first aid course. How could she possibly have sent the boy off with a wrist looking like that? It's also worrying that she told you that you would be wasting A&E resources. When it comes to children, it's always better safe than sorry. First aiders are always told that they should recommend any injuries should be checked out if there's any concern at all.

[SnuffleGruntSnorter]

Dialling, stupid autocorrect

[SnuffleGruntSnorter]

Yea, them making the actual call themselves would raise an eyebrow. I'm sure the failing of the number at least was delegated

[StillStayingClassySanDiego]

Snuffle , it's great news, OP is a lucky spud.

In my neck of the woods an Orthaepedic Surgeon available for a chat on the phone on a Sunday would be worthy of a 'what the fuck was that' moment.

[SnuffleGruntSnorter]

Classy, in a lot of hospitals, very early every morning (even on weekends!) the orthopaedic/trauma consultants sit down with their juniors and briefly discuss every patient they've seen in the preceding 24hrs with a quick look at any images taken. Usually no further action is required but it helps to reduce the number of things that get missed, it's good practice. Consultants work weekends.

[mummyto2monkeys]

Oh no, my son hated the long arm cast, they were worried that he might need to do the same when he broke his arm in two places but the long arm cast worked for the first two weeks. We h as d to go to our local hospital as soon as we got home, there was a message waiting for us when we got home. He h a d several appointments to determine if the cast was working, they were then happy to swap to a half cast. We bought the cast covers from our local chemist but our boy was still too sore to take part in any activities. He had to rest on regular carpool and ibuprofen for several days before he felt well enough to do anything. It was a long summer....(happened at the start of summer holidays)

How is your boy today? My boy was in a lot of pain even with meds and we had to bolster pillows to hold his arm in place. I hope that your boy doesn't need pins, have you been advised whether he is ok for school? The consultant said he should be at home resting to let his body recover. Usually my son is so active that it is tiring to watch, we didn't even have to tell him to rest.

[StillStayingClassySanDiego]

Blimey, you were called on a Sunday by a Consultant to discuss further action on your boy's wrist?

[WilkinsonL]

Thank you to all the people who have been helpful.

I got a call today and I think it was a consultant? He wanted to see ds in clinic and wanted more X rays and are now considered pins. Ds isn't happy but they are trying him in a long arm cast for 2 weeks first, to see how it goes. he is not a happy boy :(

[StillStayingClassySanDiego]

I've been where OP is, ds's wrist was clearly broken so we took him to A+E immediately.

I see little point in posters typing 'why would you be on here, why didn't you take him there straight away' posts, she had her reasons.

Stop digging at her, he's been seen and sorted!

[Magicpaintbrush]

Absolutely, Trilateral - I completely agree with you! Hoping the OP's son makes a swift recovery.

[whois]

If it was possible to always tell if somethings broken by having a prod and a look... We wouldn't need X-ray machines!

Take him in and get it looked at properly.

[MrsKCastle]

Fully agree with Trilateral, I think the OP has followed an entirely reasonable course of action considering the advice she was given.

My sister broke her wrist when she was around 12, it took about 2 days for mum to take her to A&E because it didn't seem that bad, just a bit sore. From what I've read, broken bones are often not diagnosed immediately.

I've been in the OP's situation frequently, not with broken bones but with concerns about a child's health and not knowing whether to seek medical help or wait and see if it improves. I find that MN is a valuable source of advice in those circumstances.

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

Well done OP :) You have done absolutely the right things for your rather handsome youngling.

I'm sure you know that anyway but I feel I should just emphasise that given a few posts that were a little, err, excitable.

Definitely complain / make the school aware of the inept first aider.

Perhaps mention that she should NEVER tell people they shouldn't get medical help!
What an over reaching person, who, in their efforts to be seen as an expert, showed themselves up to be silly-stupid instead.

[mumeeee]

Broken wrists can be hard to detect without an x-ray. DD3 once fell off the Monkey bars and we didn't realise it was actually broken until 2 days later. Just thought she had sprained it. we were away for the weekend at the time. I took her to A and E when we got back as she said it was beginning to hurt a lot.
I felt awful bit the Doctor said a lot of parents miss broken wrists.
So I would take him to A and E and get it x-rayed

[SnuffleGruntSnorter]

Absolutely Trilateral. Happy to confirm that OP got a doctors opinion very quickly by asking on here. She clearly wasn't happy with what the first aided had said so sought more opinions as she was unsure about the most appropriate action to take, I don't see anything wrong with that.

[FreshPrincessOfBelAir]

Well said Trilateral.

[Triliteral]

To those criticising the OP, and particularly to the poster who said it was neglect, I feel your comments are unreasonable and unpleasant. The OP was clearly concerned about her son's welfare, but was uncertain how to proceed. Two people, one the child's father, the other who is supposedly trained to deal with such situations both told her that she would be fussing unecessarily if she took him to A&E. We are being bombarded continuously in the media about people visiting A&E and waiting time. I think many people, given those things against them might have doubted themselves and done nothing.

Instead of that, and suspecting other people might have a different opinion, she sought advice from a source that she probably felt was reasonably reliable, and from whom she could get advice where she was sure she wasn't troubling anyone unecessarily. For anyone who feels an internet forum like this is not a reliable source of information, I would say that from observation, there are often medics on here who offer help and additionally other people who have experienced something similar. If you only look at this thread, not only did the majority of commenters correctly advise that it was best to err on the side of caution, more than one person offered specific advice regarding the type of fracture that was present.

The situation was not life threatening. She provided her child with pain-relief and followed the advice of the professional person who had seen her son at the school. When his failure to recover alerted her to the fact that the injury was potentially more serious than had previously been assumed, she took appropriate advice from a mixed group of parents and medical professionals on the internet and took her son to a place where diagnosis and treatment has been provided without excessive delay. It is very common for fractures only to be diagnosed after a delay, when failure to improve indicates a different diagnosis from that originally suspected. That's actually how medicine works in general. Nothing whatsoever neglectful has occurred.

Hope your son makes a swift recovery OP.

[mummyto2monkeys]

Your poor boy, my eight year old broke his arm in two places falling off the monkey bars when we were on holiday last year. We were staying at Crieff Hydro and they had a first aider come over straight away. It was packed in ice, put in a sling and we were sent off to a&e right away. My little boy went into shock so the first aider was reluctant to leave us, luckily my carer is our first aider so she looked after my son during the drive to hospital with my husband.

I am absolutely disgusted at the school, I hope that they will at least review the procedure for what to do in that situation. I wonder if your son was in shock as that would explain his reaction. My son is autistic and went non verbal when he went into shock. Usually we don't know that our boy is in pain (he has quite a high threshold of pain, we don't know he is poorly until he has a 40 C and collapsed.) But the scream when he fell told me immediately that it was broken, his sobbing gave us concern immediately.

[Amy214]

I was sobbing my eyes out when i broke my arm and wrist (at the same time) but after 10 mins the pain stopped and it wasnt sore it just looked wonky. I would take him to get an x ray for peace of mind.

[MatildaTheCat]

We had a very similar situation once
Ds injured his wrist playing rugby at school. Teacher looked at it and said he thought it was ok. It didn't hurt that much and ds carried on with his day. I looked at it and wasn't sure so we went for an X-ray and yes, it was a fracture.

I didn't occur to me to complain. No harm came of it. Ds told his teacher who, no doubt learned fro it. Too much complaining about people doing their best. If there had been an adverse consequence fine but the OP wasn't even sure it needed an X-ray which is why she came here.

Mention it to school by all means but please don't go in all guns blazing. It's that kind of stuff that makes schools stop football/ playground games altogether.

[WicksEnd]

God leave the OP alone. We have it drummed into us not to waste NHS resources so it can make us doubt ourselves whether to go.
She asked for advice, maybe she's had bad experiences in the past which made her reluctant. Leave her be.

[LoveFromUs]

P1nkP0ppy exactly, if I suspected my son had a broken risk, posting on an Internet forum wouldn't cross my mind.

And people are laying into her because what she had done is basically "neglect" she paid Mumsnet more attention than her own child.