Son comes back from school trip with fracture

[debsadoos123]

Hi, first time poster, please be kind. I picked my 14 year old DS up from school at 4pm today after he'd been away for a week skiing. When I got to him he had a makeshift bandage on his wrist and the teacher explained that someone had fallen into him yesterday morning and that my DS complained of extreme pain in his wrist. The said teacher went on to explain that they didn't seek medical attention because if it was broken then my DS wouldn't be able to fly home. They had taken him to a chemist and purchased a bandage and applied it.
By the time we had got home (10 min drive) my son was crying in pain so we went straight to A&E... Long story short, he has fractured a bone in his wrist. He is now in plaster and we have to return in 10 days for a bone scan.
Would I be unreasonable to make a complaint to school about their lack of action and failing to provide a duty of care?

I would have phoned you (as I did last year when a child hurt his wrist) to ask what you wanted to do. I’m pretty sure you can fly with a fractured wrist?

@LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett If it had been a leg injury, they might not have been able to move him. If it had been a back injury, moving him could have caused catastrophic injury. What would they do then?

I wouldn't be best pleased.

Also, was there no medical insurance organised for this trip? I know E111s still cover treatment in the EU for now, but as for the him not being allowed to fly bit - I thought that's why we took our travel insurance - so if we have an accident abroad they pay for repatriation.

I would have a lot of questions.

It may be absolutely fine to immobilise the fracture as far as possible and fly home, but that’s a medical decision teachers just aren’t qualified to make. Should have taken him to hospital or an injuries clinic for neurovascular assessment and advice about how best to proceed.

They could have sought medical treatment and arranged trains if he was unable to fly. There are trains, the Channel tunnel and ferries, so they weren't stuck for two weeks anywhere.

Did they give him pain relief? They had no way of knowing what the damage. Utter idiots.

Start a paper trail.

It is in no way true he couldn’t have flown home. It is fine to fly with a back slab on just not a complete cast. The teacher possibly needs a little education

I'm was a scout leader and have been overseas with a kid who broke his arm when he fell on the mountain.
You can of course seek medical attention and get the break treated and fly with it.

A school ski trip should have insurance and procedures in place to deal with this.
I would complain loudly about this. It is gross negligence on the behalf of the teachers.

I’m a doctor and I wonder if what the possible fracture is is a scaphoid fracture given he’s waiting a scan in ten days. So the delay is unlikely to affect his Kong term outcome to reassure you.

However I do think they’d should’ve rung you to have a conversation about whether he should miss the flight home or just get him home so he could be seen locally

I broke my ankle and foot the day before flying home from Cyprus, the clinic, xrayed it, plastered it, split the plaster and gave me a boot so I could fly home. I don't see why the lad couldn't have received treatment, it is possible to fly, they have to split the plaster so if it swells its not constricted but he could also have been given pain relief, I would definitely take it further.

The said teacher went on to explain that they didn't seek medical attention because if it was broken then my DS wouldn't be able to fly home.

I'd question if that's true, I seem to remember that you can't fly with a cast, unless the cast is 'split' in case of swelling. I'm fairly sure a ski resort would have medical staff used to getting people with broken bones ready for flights.

I'd be furious they had denied medical treatment.

You are not allowed to fly the next day after a fracture. So the teacher is right that he would have had to wait the next day for a flight if they had sought medical attention.

Accidents do happen. However, how they've dealt with it is unacceptable, and that's what I would be complaining about.

I also can’t understand why they’d think he couldn’t fly. Hospitals at ski resorts are well used to dealing with such injuries and I’m sure would have been willing to immobilize it and give him pain relief so he could fly home. They handled it very poorly, I think.

Dd2 did the same with a broken clavicle. It was really fucked but you can’t cast it anyway 🤷‍♀️ I took her to A&E and both the radiographer and I winced when the picture came up on the screen. It had been 48 hours at that point.
Having been responsible for teenagers overseas, I would have assessed severity myself - if he could move it and seemed (mostly) unbothered but it was sore, I wouldn’t have taken to hospital. I probably would have done the same. Strapped it up. Watched and waited. (Indeed, when one of my dc’s was in the same position with a wrist, I didn’t bother with hospital for three days - it was probably a very similar injury). With the other two, who have properly broken their wrists, we went straight away because it was bloody obvious (one roller skating, one basketball). There really wasn’t any doubt with their injuries, and if it was that sort of broken wrist, they would absolute have taken him. They couldn’t not have.

With dd2’s wrist, the jury could wait a bit longer. Sounds like your son’s.
The properly broken wrists ours have had (I don’t count dd2’s as it was just a fracture and wasn’t much of a bother) have both been tinkered with throughout. Both required re-setting, one required re-breaking, one was re-x rayed every month for six months to check healing and growth as growth plates could have been affected, and at 6-12mos post injury he might have needed surgery. No doctors were remotely bothered by a few days wait here and there. Mostly they just had a look and decided to give it another go.
I live in a ski resort though (not the one that dd broke herself in) so the docs are pretty blasé about bones. Lots of times the owner hasn’t bothered to get checked for a few days (or at least until they sober up) as people are pretty used to getting banged up.
You have to gauge the severity of an injury, and it sounds as though ds was mostly fine to wait and get home.
I get how you feel (with the collarbone debacle I was a bit pissy that they hadn’t sorted a sling and some painkillers) but ultimately a few days isn’t going to make too much difference for a wrist that needs an x ray to tell if it’s fractured or not. If it’s obvious, it can’t wait.

Sounds to me that they didn’t have enough staff. They should have rung you and sought medical advice. It could have been put in a splint at the least. I have known a child to travel in a pot but not sensible when it had only just happened as it may still be swelling.
I imagine that if the advice had been to stay longer they may not have had enough staff to take the other children home.

Consider that the person will likely be suspended.
Personally I would have taken him for medical attention after phoning you. Waited for the outcome and then act accordingly. I travelled home with the kids once because the teacher didn’t think I had fractured it and it would be difficult because they would have had to make a detour on the way back and it was a cottage hospital. I travelled black on the bus, saw the kids to the parents and then went to the nearby hospital. I went back in the next day with a very smart purple pot. I was in agony with it all day so he will have been in pain. They won’t have been able to give him any painkillers because they didn’t ring you and they didn’t seek medical attention. They will have to write a report in the accident book! A bad call I think. If it had been worse it might have needed an operation.

Many airlines do not allow you to fly the day after you have fractured something. For example this airline. It is not unusual. Presumably the airline the school used did not allow it. So yes he would have had to wait an extra day to fly home.

www.tuifly.com/en/service/gipsverband.html

Whether they should have delayed his flight home for an extra day (if there were seats available, it may have been longer), is another issue. But all those saying there is no reason he could not still fly home on that flight are wrong.

The swelling from a fractured wrist takes at least a week to come out and fractured do not normally show up on X Rays straight away because of this. I think the school should of informed you and asked your opinion on if to take to hospital there, especially if it would of delayed your sons return.

I broke my ankle on a skiing trip years ago. They treated it and put a cast with a gap of about an inch all the way down the front. I flew home the next day. I would be questioning the school over either their insurance cover or if there were enough adults there to supervise.

something isn't right here....... my 14 yr old daughter flew home from a school ski-ing trip in Italy.. with a broken leg.. she was moved into first class and treated very well ...

her accident happened in the final day on the final descent.. and they still made time to get her to a&e x-ray and cast her leg before flying home.. the same day

It would be reasonable to ask questions about their reasoning, what conversations they had with your son, the chemist and the SLT and any other advice they sought.

It would be reasonable to gather all the information you need and then decide it was lack of experience/ training/ care/ fore thought etc.

A child should not have their medical care delayed because it's inconvenient to the people responsible for him.

Some airlines require a fit to fly certificate if the break has occurred within 24 hours of the flight, if the fit to fly is provided then there is no problem taking the flight. Maybe check the actual airline's policy on this before speaking to the school again so you know if he would have been allowed to travel or not. I would be fuming at not being consulted

Sorry that should be 48 hours not 24