AIBU to instruct a lawyer

[babyno5]

Yesterday my 12 year old DS sustained a very deep and long laceration to his leg after slipping in a grassy slope at school and ripping leg open on a rusty pipe which was sticking out the ground. It nicked an artery and required 15 stitches to close it.
He’s in such a lot of pain and I am just beside myself-partly because I know the outcome could have been so much worse.
Also furious it took the Headteacher 24 hours to contact me to ask how he was.
To clarify this is not about the money but it’s about making them accountable and face up to their negligence.
To make it worse we go on holiday in 3 weeks to Florida and we have paid for just about everything there is to experience there so the kids have a holiday of a lifetime. I would hate him to miss out on anything as he has been so excited about going.
WWYD?

Accidents happen

Oh Yes, I have had lots of accidents and in a long life have never sued anyone, but this accident could easily have been prevented and the first aid treatment was inappropriate. If the OP doesn't sue, the school will continue to be negligent in these two areas and the next "accident" could be much more serious.

Thank you all. I have a meeting arranged with school for Friday morning and I am seeing a lawyer on Thursday. I initially just want some advice before school meeting.
Had to take him back to hospital last night as it is infected. Poor lamb feeling very sorry for himself and the hot weather not helping as he’s struggling to stay cool.

Sue them. He could have died. And also add on a claim for distress caused to you (yes, this is a thing).

This is horrific. I was a adult in two national voluntary youth organisations and always had to have a first aid certificate. They failed at the basic level here. If this is the standard of the named first aider, some severe questions should be asked of their training. Standing up and a tourniquet - did they get their training off an old Hollywood movie? Seriously appalling.

And it doesn't seem that they've taken it very seriously at all - I wonder if they've even reported it for something not to have been done yet as local authorities usually take accidents very seriously - particularly when they have a duty of care. FFS, the palaver when I fell off my chair and hit my head on the desk was ridiculous, so there should be a load of running around at this.

Something virtually identical happened to a friend of mine at school and he was awarded quite a substantial amount of compensation so I'd say you have a fair chance of winning.

From a medical point of view what is happening? You mention that he had the clean out done in A&E to avoid a GA? Did he later go to theatre? There are arteries and then there are arteries. Who closed his wounds? Orthopaedics? Plastics?

The reason I ask is because this is the type of thing that will be looked at. When it’s our children it’s awful when they’re injured and of course any avoidable injury is upsetting, but in the grand scheme of things this may be considered as a relatively minor wound, which would naturally have a minor payout. From what you’ve said here, I wouldn’t expect the payout to be very high tbh (your holiday probably cost more).

Without being too crass, the payout might be so insignificant that it would not greatly affect the school or effect the change you want. However an HSE is likely to be more effective.

No to the distress claim for OP. Psych injury without physical injury is exceptionally rare. She'd have had to be with him when he was injured to claim psych herself (there's a fair amount of case law from Hillsborough on this type of claim), and even then it's still tough to get it.

So many people appear to be able to value injuries without medical reports / photos of the scarring on here. It's amazing. My job would be loads easier if I had that skill! OP, nobody can value the claim yet, so ignore anyone who says they know the amount your son's claim is worth. They don't! You need a plastic surgeon's report on the scar before even considering a valuation.

Moreisnnogedag no he didn’t have to go to theatre and was closed by plastics. They have made a super neat job given the state it was in when we arrived.
They are an academy so not answerable to LA. I have requested evidence of RIDDOR report to HSE amongst other things.
It’s not about the money I want there to be lessons learned from this

What would you be claiming compensation for? He hasn't had any losses.

I work in insurance and would definitely take this further! Why they wouldn’t remove this after an incident is insane and if they were one of my clients I’d be advising them to put together a full risk assessment as a result, a full log of what happened, and removing the pipe as a matter of urgency.

Recently had a case where a young girl fell out a window at an educational building because the locks on the windows hadn’t been secured, we are looking at a big payout for that so it doesn’t matter that he is a student.

I really hope his infection clears up and your meetings are productive.

Regarding him not having losses he might need counselling, surgery in the future, holiday may be cancelled as a result and the holiday insurance would want to claim back the money from those responsible etc

Hont1986 for pain and suffering he is experiencing caused by not an insignificant injury!!

Thanks insurancegirl trying not to think about potential holiday cancellation at this point! But appreciate it might be a reality.

Awful response by the school! Why on earth did they not see fit to take him to A&E?!

Sadly in my job we have to think the worst for assessing the potential cost of the claims we could see, and it goes into extra mode when an “incident” happens - not nice to think about but is part of the risks we consider when doing insurance for clients.

Hi, I have fought and won a personal injury claim against a school.

Definitely seek legal advice, you can get the ball rolling even if you don't follow it through.

Keep track of all appointments, associated costs of travel to/from appointments, any prescriptions, any care you have to give your son outside of normal (eg. help washing), any time he has had to miss events, outings, parties, holidays etc, or his enjoyment of them has been affected by the injury. Especially important with your upcoming holiday.

The school have definitely been negligent, and will want to avoid court like the plague, so would likely settle.

Hope your son heals well and has no complications, and you all enjoy your holiday.

No appreciate this isn’t about the money but from what you’ve said, litigation may not bring about the change you want. From their perspective, I’d imagine they’d admit some liability and offer compensation pretty quickly. The payout would be limited to the here and now, and may not take into account any actual problems your son may have. In which case it may be better to wait.

If asked for a medical opinion, a superficial artery injury is scary but no long term sequelae. A wound that was closed in A&E without requiring formal debridement or flap closure is a “simple” laceration. It would be reasonable to expect that he would heal well with no requirement of counselling or scar revision surgery (which is of course great). This is not a case where the potential payout would be so high as to scare the school management. It would be a fairly standard non-contested thing dealt with by lawyers in, i imagine, a fairly summarily way.

For true change I would perhaps pursue the other aspects of this, which are concerning.

Hi, I have fought and won a personal injury claim against a school.

Definitely seek legal advice, you can get the ball rolling even if you don't follow it through.

Keep track of all appointments, associated costs of travel to/from appointments, any prescriptions, any care you have to give your son outside of normal (eg. help washing), any time he has had to miss events, outings, parties, holidays etc, or his enjoyment of them has been affected by the injury. Especially important with your upcoming holiday.

The school have definitely been negligent, and will want to avoid court like the plague, so would likely settle.

Hope your son heals well and has no complications, and you all enjoy your holiday.

Going through formal complaints procedure will ensue it doesnt happen again, will give you the answers you require, if you're after money then go to a solicitor.

Why wasn't he given a local for the pain? why would they clean a very serious open wound that you say required a trip to theatre but then clean it out it with no pain relief?

fwiw my daughter (aged 11) did a regional XC run at her school grounds, a nail attached to some wood, went up through the shoe and out the other side, she yanked the wood out of her foot and carried on running and finished 2nd, we went to AE, had a local, cleaned, antibiotics and a tetanus, it never occurred to me to sue the school, shit happens, it wasn't intentional and your son will be fine.

@Insurancegirl for my own interest did the girl sustain any injuries who fell out the window? I’m just interested whether educational establishments liability is different.

RIDDOR has to be reported as soon as possible, within 10 days.

At public facilities where I have been responsible for reporting and H&s investigations and reports, paperwork had to be on file and off to senior management within 24 hours. Call backs to those injured or affected for welfare check also within 24 hours, especially if it was a child.

Dynamic risk assessment post incident had to have immediate address within 24 hours, e.g remove and make safe area where the pipe is.

No excuse for the response, or lack of it, after the accident.

Have they even fenced the pipe off? It would take no time at all to cone it off, fence it off, stick a cage on top and peg it down. At least that would show they were doing something for the last week or so of school, and then planning to properly fix it during the holidays.

If they did nothing, then that's disgusting. Sue them... But even more for their lack of action!

I've dealt with a similar case for insurers with a child who sliced his leg open on a bit of victorian railing that had been removed but not capped off properly. That wasn't even on a playground, it was in a grassy decorative area (albeit privately owned) which had unrestricted access in a city centre and the kids were messing on it.

OP's DS is a child, the school permit him and his classmates on the grass to play and so they should make sure it's safe for that purpose. They should also have a system of inspection/landscaping where stuff like this should be picked up and fixed. That grass is cut but the end of the pipe is rusty AF. It's been like that a long time and just no-one arsed fixing it. Even if OP's DS was in a part of the grounds where kids weren't allowed you still have to take account of the fact these areas pose an attraction to children and restrict access or supervise the kids accordingly. It's not good enough.

jasjas1973 with all due respect this is a bit more than a nail through a shoe! A broken rusty pipe protruding through the grass on a children’s playground is negligence

Rocinante1 they have put some hazard tape around it!