To make complaint about how DC's injury was handled at cheerleading class?

[Nocheerhere]

NC- regular reader, occ poster blah blah blah.

Last week DD sustained an injury whilst at cheerleading class. She described it as falling into her neck/shoulder coming out of a handstand. She was immediately in agony, screaming & crying in pain. She asked for me to be contacted & told they couldn't locate my number. DD is normally dropped off by her friends Mum, she asked them to contact her to contact me but they wouldn't.

DD was advised to keep mobilising her shoulder and was left at the side for the remainder of the class. When DH arrived to collect DD he heard her crying from the car park. She screamed all the way home (5 min journey). One look at her & it was clear she needed a&e.

Turns out DD had a suffered a nasty break in her collarbone. The days since the accident have been tough for her. No school. Needs assistance with toilet, eating etc. Pain has been such that she has subsequently been prescribed Dihydrocodeine as at one point breathing was causing her immense pain.

I really do not feel this incident was dealt with appropriately at the class. The advice she was given, if followed could have seriously complicated the injury. If it had been her neck I dread to think what the outcome could have been. It also breaks my heart that she was waiting there in agony for us & we weren't contacted.

I just wondered if any one runs a similar class, what procedures are in place? It doesn't sound like basic first aid or H&S procedures were followed. My concern is another child will be injured with far worse outcome. How should I go about approaching this with them.

Thanks

[Tansie1]

festive you've spoken a lot of sense, and thank you for clearing up how cheer differs from gymnastics, for instance.

[Festivecheer26]

Steppe: what is it that you disagree with?

I'm with you in that there is absolutely no way a child should be left screaming in pain. But I also find it very difficult to imagine a situation in which a child is injured, is inconsolably crying, asking for parents to be called and nothing being done - something there doesn't add up. Either that's not exactly what happened and there's more to this or it is exactly what happened and there's something seriously wrong with the club. The only way OP is going to find out more is by asking what happened and then she can decide where to take it from there.

[steppemum]

Festive - I disagree.
Normally on any thread about disagreements with school etc, my advice would be go in and talk, listen to what they say, work together for a solution etc. But I think this is slightly different.
I am a teacher and we would have the book thrown at us if we left a child sitting crying loudly in pain like that, without a proper first aider or calling the parent.

There may or may not have been a problem with the session that caused the accident. I would think it is possible it was just that, an accident, but you do not need a first aid certificate to see that a child is in pain, and if that child is asking for their parent to be called, and you don't have the phone number at hand, and you refuse to call. That is crap.

Their response was crap, and while I would go in and ask what happened, they would need a very good explanation to make me think otherwise.

[Festivecheer26]

Scrub: agreed they should and I didn't say they shouldn't. I was making the point that this isn't mandated by a governing body (because there isn't one) or the organisations previously mentioned. In cheerleading these policies are best practice rather than mandated (unlike gymnastics where you have to provide British Gymnastics with details of your welfare officer and sign up to various codes of conduct to be a member). I'm not saying I agree with this but it's the way things are in cheerleading at the moment. Organisations like British Gymnastics and the Council for Dance Education and Training have a variety of resources, readymade policies, safeguarding courses etc available to their members - there is no equivalent in cheer. Very often coaches are having to create these policies from scratch and don't always get it right first time or think of everything. If this had happened in a gymnastics club the OP could go to the welfare officer, sadly there's no guarantee that a cheer club will have the same kind of structure and give parents an independent person to go to. This incident will be a learning exercise for the club.

[ScrubTheDecks]

FestiveCheer: if they are offering organised activities for children they should have a safeguarding policy and a first aider present whether it is stunt-motorcycling or tiddlywinks.

I assume the OP pays subs for this activity?

[crushedstrawberries]

YANBU- this incident was handled really badly and the coaches should have picked up on how serious the injury was pretty quickly and she should have been taken to hospital straight from the gym by the coaches. I think that you do need to remember that cheerleading is a very dangerous sport. I cheered from the age of 4 and have recently retired at age 18. In my 14 years in the sport I have sustained many injuries including broken fingers, broken wrist, dislocated shoulder and broken ankles. I now have permanent weakness to both knees and ankles with other joints just popping out.
I don't think many people appreciate how dangerous cheer can be so you may need to start getting used to the fact that your child will inevitably get hurt doing this sport.

[Festivecheer26]

I'm a cheerleading coach (have managed my own club for over 10 years now if that's relevant) and wanted to give my perspective and clear up some of the misinformation on this thread.

Cheerleading doesn't have an official governing body, BCA and ICC as mentioned above are event producers. They organise competitions and coaching courses but there is no actual regulation of clubs and coaches as there is with gymnastics. There is no requirement to pay a registration fee for individual insurance as there is with gymnastics. To enter competitions you usually have to confirm that your club has public liability insurance but this generally isn't inspected by the event organisers - I think I've had to provide a copy once in the past 10 years. The lack of governing body is a real issue for lots of reasons, in your case there is no organisation to report your club to if necessary.

Coaching courses cover the need to have first aid qualifications, keep an accident book etc however there is no requirement to hold a sports first aid certification - in practice I expect that most coaches will hold an emergency first aid course and not have had any detailed training in how to identify breaks, dislocations etc. I'm not defending leaving a child in pain but I'm suspecting that your child's coach(es) had no idea it was a collarbone break and will feel awful when they find out what has happened. I'm struggling to see how your daughter landed "coming down from a handstand" to cause a collarbone break but accidents happen. It can sometimes be incredibly difficult to gauge how injured someone is - they'll have seen children bounce up from much worse. This incident should cause them to look at internal procedures and policies and understand what went wrong this time.

I would ask for a meeting with the coaches (they're people running a fun activity for kids, go in and speak to them rather than writing a letter requesting a timed response) and ask what happened - how did your daughter get injured, what was she doing at the time, at what point in the class did it happen and what did they do. Also where did your husband pick her up from? Was she in the class, was she sitting outside the training room, did he speak to any of the coaching staff to ask questions or ask to see the accident report? Ask what their accident procedure is, who is first aid trained and to see the accident book. At the moment you only have your daughters version of events, which you will naturally believe over the club, but I would really recommend asking those leading the session what happened. Try and separate emotion from the event and stick to the facts. Then you can follow up with a written complaint (to the head coach/owner of the club?) if you feel that it's necessary.

As a previous poster recommended - focus on the outcomes and what you want to happen. If I were you I'd be looking for an understanding of what happened so I could help my child process the incident and recover and for the club to review its policies and improve staff training if required.

[notapizzaeater]

Was it a school run class or someone coming in ? It needs reporting to RIDDOR - make sure they have done.

[RandomMess]

The places that do acro or Cheer on hard floors or thin mats utterly terrifies me. Because yes nasty accidents can happening doing something "non dangerous" - DD badly twisted ankle stepping sideways about to base 3 days off school!!

[steppemum]

sorry, random, missed that.
no, wouldn't expect anyone to be spotting handstands

[RandomMess]

@steppemum - my comment was actually to the fact someone should have been "spotting" - handstands on the floor no they wouldn't be!

Any sort of stunt they would be but that would be level 5 I should think, or could have been coming down from another stunt and it went wrong. Sadly even with good spotters and bases it does go wrong sometimes - hence it being the female sport with the highest injury/death incidence

[Greenandcabbagelooking]

Here is what would happen at my dance school.

Once it was decided that child couldn’t be comforted by us, and only mum would do, parent would be called.
First aid would be given - ice, support to get comfortable.
Someone would sit with child to keep an eye on her, and to chat.
Accident book filled in, parent given a copy.
We would evaluate what happened and why, and appropriate changes would be made.

If it was a serious injury, we would call ambulance, then call parents.

[steppemum]

Just to compare, dds class went ice skating, child fell over and was obviously in pain. The first aiders came checked her over, wrapped her in tin foil thing as she was in shock, gave advice, teachers called school, who contacted parents. The first aiders thought it was just a sprain, and she wasn't very vocal, but was obviously in pain. Adult sat with her at all times reassuring and comforting.

Lesson was nearly over, so they decided to take her back to school, carried her out to the coach, parent met them at school, and was advised A&E. Turned out to be a nasty break.

To be honest doing handstands are not high risk and a very basic exercise that hundreds do daily on the school playground!

sorry, but that is a silly comment. I broke my ankle badly in 3 places slipping of the bottom step on a flight of stairs - doing something everyday doesn't mean you can't have a nasty accident doing it. She obviously came down awkwardly, landed badly etc.
The issue is not HOW it happened, no suggestion of neglect, but what they did AFTER it happened

[BertrandRussell]

"o be honest doing handstands are not high risk and a very basic exercise that hundreds do daily on the school playground!
Absolutely. Which is what makes me wonder if there was more to this than meets the eye. All the more reason for the OP to be very careful what she puts in writing.

[ScrubTheDecks]

My organisation rents space for youth activities like this and we would very much want to know if Safeguarding and First Aid requirements were not being met. We would be failing in our duty if care and our own safeguarding if we made space available for clubs with inadequate practice.

Is this taking place in a school or a church or village hall type setting?

[RandomMess]

To be honest doing handstands are not high risk and a very basic exercise that hundreds do daily on the school playground! It's one of the first things they learn before tumbles.

Presumably they were on rich mats if not a sprung floor so I can imagine the coaches assuming she couldn't have hurt herself that badly. However it doesn't excuse not calling the parent and ignoring the fact your DD was clearly in considerable distress/pain.

[LIZS]

There should be a procedure in place for emergencies and injuries, including provision of first aid trained instructor, having contact details to hand, to call parent/carer and follow up. It is a a serious safeguarding failure to leave a child crying in pain and not do anything. The inherent risk in the activity makes it all the more critical. Is the group affiliated to an organisation who in themselves may have such policies? Make a formal complaint highlighting an apparent lack of or adherence to a policy. Hope dd feels better soon.

[dancinfeet]

Firstly, doing cheerleading, acrodance etc does come with some amount of risk of injury (as with a lot of sports) but in order to reduce the risk, your daughter should not have been permitted to attempt any gymnastic or tumbling skill that she is not competent with without a spotter.
The club should have a qualified first aider at all sessions, and should also have public liability insurance. It sounds as though they handled it badly, and that possibly no one has first aid training. At the very least they should have had someone take a proper look and administer basic first aid, fill out an accident book and call you immediately. I would also expect a follow up call or email.

[Ivegotfamilyandidrinkcupsoftea]

Yanbu op this sounds terrible!

[newyearoldme]

Yes, don't mention anything about not considering it the trainers fault as you can (and should) legally go after them for their negligent mishandling of the situation.

[BertrandRussell]

Although I might question the training she has received if she suffered an injury this severe doing a simple handstand.......

[BertrandRussell]

Don't put in the bit about not blaming the leaders. The accident probably wasn't their fault but everything subsequently was.

[liminality]

Absolutely take it farther, I do a number of high impact sports and have never heard of trainers being so inefficient and poorly trained in first aid. Disgraceful.
That said, why did your husband take her home instead of straight to A&E?

[emmyrose2000]

YANBU

Your poor daughter.

DD is normally dropped off by her friends Mum, she asked them to contact her to contact me but they wouldn't
The club refusing to contact the other mum would make me absolutely LIVID. Presumably your friend would then have contacted you immediately, which would have lessened the time DD sat there crying in agony.

The club obviously needs to implement proper emergency procedures, including contacting parents/guardians immediately an incident occurs or should be closed down.

[Nocheerhere]

Thanks @RandomMess I'll check the paperwork & website for those affiliations.

@BackforGood yes I'm thinking of doing this. The class takes place in a school, so I think they should be made aware