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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

No help for injured kid. AIBU to think this deserves more than a 'complaint'

60 replies

angeldelightedme · 04/01/2017 17:39

My 10 yr old DD loves to go to gymnastics.She goes for 2.5 hours once a week .Last night I went to pick her up and I could see right away something was wrong becuase she was slumped looked dazed and grey .One of the coaches said she had landed badly and 'shocked herself' 'She could not put any weight on het foot and I had to help her out of the room and could see see she was shakey as soon as she got outside she vomited in the car park..I took her straight to A&E and she had fractured her ankle and 2 bones in her foot.This had happened 45 minutes into a 2.5 hour class and she had just been ignored.No first aid , no ice , no attempt to ring parents.Now I know it is a dangerous sport and there are intrinsic risks.That's fine.What isn't fine is that because3 she wasn't screaming and crying she was left in pain for nearly 2 hours.

OP posts:
MycatsaPirate · 04/01/2017 18:52

That's dreadful! She was left for well over 90 minutes in pain and no help given?

Definitely complain!! Ask to see their Health and Safety procedures and their First Aid certificates of the designated first aider on site. If they can't produce them then they should not be operating at all.

Your poor, poor DD. I hope she's feeling better now and being spoilt at home.

soontobemrsmckeown · 04/01/2017 19:19

Does your daughter have the correct insurance to be doing gymnastics? If so she is covered on there- make a claim and speak to the club leader and ask them to see the accident policy and the risk assesment

MotherFuckingChainsaw · 04/01/2017 19:41

witchend you are right, of course, some kids will scream the place down, and some will go quiet (I had several injuries overlooked when I was a kid in the cougheighties because I am one of the quiet ones)

The thing is to any half -trained first aider will KNOW a person that goes quiet or still, is quite probably in more pain than a screamer.

So it's absolutely no excuse that they ignored her because she didn't fuss.

Isitjustmeorisiteveryoneelse · 04/01/2017 19:45

Yes agree with PPs, the issue is not the injury - with two DDs serious about gymnastics/trampolining we have a season ticket to the local minor injuries unit - it's the response to it that is the problem. Is this a club run by professionals? There is no way a child should have to scream blue murder for them to think there might be an issue. The coaches at our gym would be horrified to hear this. If it is a professional outfit, then British Gymnastics will have provided insurance (you'll know as you'll be paying for it in the fees and you should be filling out a new form for it every year). A complaint to the venue is the first step, and then if no joy, to British Gymnastics.

justanotherusername0 · 04/01/2017 19:51

That is absolutely awful your poor DD
I would complain complain complain. It is a dangerous sport and coaches should therefore take injuries seriously !
This is negligence to the extreme. I hope your DD gets better soon!

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 04/01/2017 21:59

She was dazed when you collected her, and They'd not noticed. That's a highly dangerous safe guarding issue. She could have been concussed. Had brain damage. Might sound dramatic, but You don't take chances.
You don't ignore a child because they're not crying FFS. Her pain was that severe that she actually vomited
Her poor plates of meat, bless her.
I'd be bloody apoplectic.

user1477282676 · 04/01/2017 22:01

This is terrible! What if it had been her head or neck that had been injured! Shock

I would consider taking legal action against them purely as a means of protecting other children!

bumsexatthebingo · 04/01/2017 22:26

I sounds bad from what you say but do you know for sure it happened 45 minutes into the class?

Maladicta · 04/01/2017 23:00

I would imagine British Gymnastics has pretty strict rules about what should happen if there's an injury like this in order to provide insurance cover - when your dd is on the mend it would certainly be worth checking and following up robustly. A friend's son was injured during a gym session, the club was roasted for not following protocol.

I would imagine that as a minimum they have to file a detailed accident report if there's anything which requires hospital treatment - certainly at my dcs rugby club they have to complete forms for specific injuries and there's very specific guidance on what first aiders should do. The venue may also require the same.

Flowers for you and Cake and best wishes for your dd

Bogburglar75 · 05/01/2017 06:51

I've just been having a rummage on the British Gymnastics website and while I can't find a specific accident protocol it clearly says that any accident or injury needs to be reported and a form completed. So a starting point might be to check this has been done and see the accident form.

BIgBagofJelly · 05/01/2017 07:33

Bloody hell that really is rubbish. They should have checked straight away if she could put weight on it. This is all standard first aid stuff. Some children howl at a grazed knee and some are incredibly stoic, they should know this and go through the standard checks after an injury. What if it had been a head injury and they just left her sitting by the side for two hours?

I would complain first to the club and see how they handle it. If you're not satisfied that this will never happen again take it further.

Afreshstartplease · 05/01/2017 07:35

That's terrible your poor dd Sad

Definitely complain

Applesandpears23 · 05/01/2017 08:21

Even of they didn't realise she was badly hurt they should have rung you to tell you that she had stopped joining in and was clearly unhappy. Unless that is normal behaviour for your daughter.

Ncbecauseitshard · 05/01/2017 08:29

Complain and call British gymnastics if they are a member club and report it. Because injuries are a big part of the sport someone should have been there who knows what to do.

RockNRollNerd · 05/01/2017 09:26

I coach at a sports club (not gymnastics) and this is dreadful. Agree with others that after half an hour if nothing else they should have called you as a kid who isn't badly hurt but has only 'shocked themselves' would not be sitting dazed and grey for more than a few minutes. They should also have checked the ankle if it was a bad landing and applied basic first aid.

We have our safeguarding and first aid courses run especially for the club so they focus on specific application to our sport - safeguarding therefore covers things like touching the child (necessary in many sports to correct grip etc) appropriately and for first aid we were explicitly warned on at least one of our courses about badly injured children going quiet, pale etc as a sign of shock and potentially serious injury. It's surprisingly common in kids who have a bad injury to go into shock like your DD did and I would expect at least one senior/supervisory coach to be on top of this and to have noticed.

Not sure how the structure works in gymnastics but I would write/email the welfare officer of the club (or the nearest equivalent) and express concerns and ask for a full investigation and copies of current policies, when they were last reviewed/updated and details of the training that coaches go through. Depending on the response then they should have an escalation policy or go to the governing body (in my sport it would go through local and regional bodies first).

Hope your DD gets better soon.

Festivecheer26 · 05/01/2017 10:22

I'm very sorry to hear about your daughters injury, I hope she has a speedy recovery and is back to training soon! I coach gymnastics so wanted to share my view and suggest what I would do in your shoes.

Protocol differs from club to club but I'd expect that your club would have an accidents / injury policy, first aid trained staff (though not necessarily all sports first aid qualified - some may just have emergency first aid which doesn't cover fractures etc in any detail), an accident / injury logbook and a welfare or child protection officer. Details of the accident policy and the welfare officer's contact details should be in your parent information pack or on your clubs website so you should hopefully already have access to this information.

I'd double check facts with your daughter - when she thinks this bad landing/fall happened, what was she doing at the time, where was she in the gym, what did she tell the staff, what did they say/do etc - then contact the head coach / club director to explain what your daughter has told you, what you experienced when you picked her up and what happened at the hospital and to request a meeting to discuss. I'd expect the head coach to then speak to the staff to get their account of what happened so you can discuss, along with the accident report, at your meeting. This will enable a much better conversation - if the club can't produce an accident report or provide any explanation lf what happened then you make it clear that this isn't acceptable to you and you find another club for your daughter to train at. If the coaches account is different to your daughters - e.g. fall happened 15 mins before end of session, no obvious signs of injury and your daughter kept saying she was fine to rest and see how she felt until you arrived (though this doesn't excuse the not very detailed handover) - then you discuss this with your daughter, see what she says and take it from there. It does seem strange to me that a 10 year old would sit out for 2 hours without asking to go home - would your daughter be nervous or scared to ask the coaches if they could contact you to collect her?

Gather as much information as you can before you decide how to proceed. The hardest thing about being the parent (and the head coach / director / welfare officer) in this situation is that you weren't there to witness the incident yourself so you don't know for sure what has happened. Accidents often happen very quickly in gymnastics so even those there at the time may not be able to give you an exact explanation of what happened.

The comments above re "what if it was a head injury" "you should seek legal action" are not helpful in my view - it is very unfortunate that the coaches didn't deal with your daughter's injury appropriately but that does not automatically mean that they'd fail to help an unconscious child with a serious head or neck injury. Think about your overall impression and experience of the club - have you had any cause for concern in the past? How have other injuries been dealt with? A couple of years ago we had a child trip and fall on the way back from the bathroom, she bounced back up, we asked her if she was ok, she said yes and finished the session - woke up the next morning with a very sore wrist which turned out to be broken. We all felt terrible that we didn't pick up on this but it doesn't mean that we are negligent or unsafe.

Think about what you expect from speaking to the club / complaining. In my view your priority should be establishing whether you continue to trust the club with your child's safety - it may be that this injury leads them to provide additional staff training or amend their accident policy to aim to ensure this doesn't happen again with anyone else or it may be that your daughter could attend a different session with different coaches if you don't trust the particular individuals that coach your daughter's class. Or if the trust is broken then you find another club for your daughter to attend so that she can continue to take part in an activity that she loves.

Hope this helps.

DailyFail1 · 05/01/2017 10:24

Very dangerous. Club needs to be shut down.

CocktailQueen · 05/01/2017 10:28

Very dangerous. Club needs to be shut down.

Over-reaction, much?? Hmm

OP, your dd's treatment has been absolutely shocking. The coach should have at least applied ice and checked her ankle over, given the length of time she was sitting and not taking part/not looking her normal self. The club is in loco parentis and has completely failed.

DD does gymnastics too and whener she has injured herslf a coach has gone straight over, checked her out, given ice/rest and if she'd had to sit out, a coach has sat with her or at least checked on her regularly.

I'd make a formal complaint to the club and ask them to review their first aid procedures and give staff more training, if necessary.

How is your dd today? Flowers

DailyFail1 · 05/01/2017 10:33

Cocktail The girl fractured her foot 45mins into a 2.5 hr lesson after a 'bad fall' & the teacher didn't tell her parents despite the child being pale and shocky. There is a serious safeguarding issue here - what if it had been a head injury?

CocktailQueen · 05/01/2017 10:45

Fail - but it wasn't a head injury.

See FestiveCheer's message re head injury and speculation.

Best to gather all facts, have meeting with coach and find out what really happened before going in all guns blazing.

soupey1 · 05/01/2017 10:52

I used to be involved in Tae Kwon Do a sport with the potential for injury. If anyone child or adult was injured we would immediately offer first aid with an appropriate adult designated to look after them one to one. If it wasn't something minor that meant that they joined in again after a few minutes we would ask an adult if we could phone someone or give them a lift somewhere and for a child we would phone a parent.

It is not the injury but the fact that they didn't act properly which is the concern. You would be right to speak to the coaches and depending on what they say the governing body about this lapse.

Isadora2007 · 05/01/2017 10:56

Your club should have a safeguarding officer that this needs to now Be investigated by.
I would put in writing what you believe happened and that you wish it to be investigated. Request a meeting to hear the outcome which at the very least should include training updates for the coaches present that night and/or disciplinary measures for those responsible for the care Of your daughter.
As a gym mum myself and a safeguarding officer for our club I am shocked as I know our club would never ever miss An injury like this. But equally I cannot imagine any of our gymnasts sitting quietly for over an hour without this being a real cause for concern from our coaches who know their gymnasts very well. Did your daughter feel she couldn't be honest with her coaches? That would be a big concern moving forward as there needs to be 100% trust between gymnast and coach imo.
Wishing your daughter a speedy recovery.

TheWitTank · 05/01/2017 11:02

That's shit. My DD had a similar situation, but at school. She badly broke her upper arm falling from apparatus at 11am ish. Initially screamed and cried, first aiders looked at her and stuck her in a sling for an hour which was then removed because DD wasn't crying or making a fuss anymore. DD was only 6, loves school and is not the type to make a fuss. She would rather suck up the pain. They even made her go swimming Confused. Even after DD had to get out because she couldn't move her arm they didn't ring me. I picked her up at 3 and they ushered me in to find her grey, sweating, with a visibly swollen and deformed arm. I was bloody furious-not because of the accident, but because they didn't call me or give her first aid properly (they admitted they didn't know what to do!). I really hope your DD feels better soonFlowers

Hellochicken · 05/01/2017 11:06

If you mean "more than a complaint" that the circumstances need investigated/not happen to another child in future, (I would have thought that was what a complaint was for) then YANBU. Definitely, this needs highlighting/ do they need repeat first aid training? etc

Do you mean you want financial compensation? If so I think YABU.

DJBaggySmalls · 05/01/2017 11:12

The club needs to be shut down. If a child lands badly on their head and neck and is left to walk it off, they could suffer a permanent injury. I cant believe genuine gymnastics coaches didnt know how to deal with your DD's injury.