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Original poster

Son comes back from school trip with fracture

341 replies

debsadoos123 · 23/02/2020 00:06

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?

OP posts:
Ylvamoon · 23/02/2020 11:34

A lot of posters are writing as if the schoolknewthe wrist was fractured and made decisions based on this knowledge. All they knew was his wrist was sore.

... on a school trip with hopefully a trained first aider looking at the wrist, deciding it needs painkillers & a bandage to restrict movment .... ? That's crying out for proper medical attention.

titchy · 23/02/2020 11:35

Lots of airlines say you cannot fly the day after a fracture. It is not unusual. He could fly the next day.

It was over 24 hours... he could have flown home having had appropriate medical treatment. If he couldn't fly home then there was plenty of time for OP to fly out if necessary. Or a teacher could have stayed behind. To not seek medical treatment for a child because it's inconvenient would land most parents with a social services visit. This is no different.

The school were breathtakingly negligent. Governors, OFSTED, local authority. All need to be informed tomorrow - it's a gross failure in safeguarding.

wibdib · 23/02/2020 11:36

When you do put your complaint in make sure that you ask for it to be note as a safeguarding complaint as the school has different legal obligations when a safeguarding complaint has been recorded vs the same complaint but not called safeguarding. It goes in figures, ofsted get to see them, they’re required to follow up etc etc - will help to ensure that they take it seriously, give you more comeback and have consequences for the school.

Newkitchen123 · 23/02/2020 11:39

They should have phoned you
They should have taken him to a doctor
You need to see the risk assessment

titchy · 23/02/2020 11:40

It is incredibly unlikely that a simple fracture to the wrist would have any issues from a days delay in being treated.

But not impossible. And the teachers were not medically qualified to make that decision. And they didn't know it was a simple fracture. Could have been very complex. Could have risked dvt.

itsgettingweird · 23/02/2020 11:40

Find the complaints policy online.

Find any paperwork from the trip and what they say re injuries etc.

Complain using bullet points.

X happened at x time on x date.
Y made this decision and stated at x time it was because ....

Complaining because ....... (and I would ask what they would have done midair if he became in too much pain).

Ask for investigation and answer in complaints timeframe.

MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 23/02/2020 11:40

OP does not say the teacher suspected the wrist was broken.
But I agree it was the wrong decision.
Had it gone the other way, we would have a thread with a parent annoyed at having to drop everything and fly to France (or wherever) to collect their child with a bruise on their wrist.

Yep. This is why I have not and will never put my name forward when they're asking for staff to accompany students on trips. I agree that the staff in this case got it very wrong and OP needs to take it up with the HT. But very often in these situations staff are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Our poor admin staff are often given an earful of abuse from parents who don't want to leave work to collect ill/injured children from school, so I can just imagine the outrage from some parents at being told they'd have to travel to France!

Ellmau · 23/02/2020 11:41

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.

OMG. So they decided instead to let him fly with a potentially broken wrist and no medical attention.

Presumably this would invalidate any insurance claim as well.

You need to escalate this by any means possible. Legal advice may be advisable not because, as one pp suggested, you were after compensation, but bc a lawyer getting involved often makes a school take things more seriously.

Jaxhog · 23/02/2020 11:43

I wonder if they had proper ski insurance? This could be a reason for not taking him for medical help before getting home.

Although a broken wrist is not usually too serious, they had no way of knowing that it wasn't a broken arm without medical help. Having broken my wrist last year I also know they don't put it in plaster unless it is a pretty serious break - mine was in a wrist brace instead. I also think it's very unlikely an airline wouldn't allow him to fly. It would delay things a day or so until his wrist was properly assessed and treated. Worth it to be sure he was ok.

It is gross negligence, and I would be having serious words with the school.

MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 23/02/2020 11:43

Legal advice may be advisable not because, as one pp suggested, you were after compensation, but bc a lawyer getting involved often makes a school take things more seriously.

But she hasn't even spoken to the school yet! Why threaten them with solicitors to make them take things "more seriously" when for all we know the HT may well take it very seriously indeed! Our HT certainly would.

gingerbiscuits · 23/02/2020 11:44

Holy shit - that's dreadful! I would DEF ask for an immediate mtg with the school to discuss further. I'm a Teaching Partner in a Primary School & can tell you that they would have had to do a full risk assessment before going & have plans in place for such an accident/injury - which was highly likely, given the nature of the trip! At the VERY least, you should have had a phone call to inform you & then you could & should have been part of the decision making process. It's absolutely outrageous to be faced with an untreated, seriously injured child 48hrs after an accident which you knew nothing about! Massive failure in the school's duty of care.

MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 23/02/2020 11:46

Surely a member of staff would have stayed behind with the child so they would both have flown home on another flight, in that instance.

Not necessarily. Our policy in this situation is that a Parent/carer would need to travel to the location of the trip to take responsibility for supervising the ill/injured child and getting them home. I imagine other schools have similar procedures in place.

OhLookHeKickedTheBall · 23/02/2020 11:50

fizzy similar happened with DD (i actually started a post about it as I wasn't 100% sure if I should take her or leave her overnight to assess her). She had a scaphoid fracture. We had to go back 10 days later for a reassessment - not because they didn't think it was much but to assess whether it was healing on its own or whether she may need surgery. Thankfully she's fine and all healed now but it was a horrible 10 days and the school were not the best - they didn't even tell me she had hurt it, made her carry on the day including taking part in a fun run and in their first aiders view the fact she wasn't in agony at the time meant she couldn't have fractured it. The orthopaedics dr on the 10 day review held back a few swear words when DD told her that. I did complain to the school, not that it could change what happened to DD but to ask them to review their processes and knowledge base to ensure it doesn't happen again. They didn't and now my friends DD has a fracture following a similar incident, the same you're not in enough pain response and not told by school. I believe they are now looking at procedure as thankfully my friend had knowledge I'd already complained about the same thing so pointed out DDs incident should have meant they dealt better with her DD.

superram · 23/02/2020 11:56

Insurance is highly unlikely to be the issue here-school ski trip insurance is expensive but is usually amazing.

Skysblue · 23/02/2020 11:56

Make formal complaint to school plus complaint to Ofsted, that is outrageous and definitely negligence, consider legal action through a solicitor. They owe your son damages but more importantly you have a duty to try to tackle their poor attitude to the safety of children in their care.

Did they phone / email you / contact you in anyway? If not why not?

PegasusReturns · 23/02/2020 11:59

That’s outrageous and negligent.

Denying him treatment for convenience sake is appalling.

ilovesooty · 23/02/2020 11:59

@MinisterforCheekyFuckery exactly. Give the headteacher the chance to take it seriously before involving the law.

LonginesPrime · 23/02/2020 12:05

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

This is appalling, OP.

It would be one thing if they didn't realise the severity of the injury.

But to acknowledge that it's probably serious and to decide not to seek medical attention for that reason is shockingly negligent.

Pud2 · 23/02/2020 12:08

Make formal complaint to school plus complaint to Ofsted, that is outrageous and definitely negligence, consider legal action through a solicitor

As explained numerous times before, if you want to make a formal complaint, you don’t go to OFSTED. You need to follow the school’s complaint procedure. If you go straight to OFSTED they will ask if you have followed the complaints procedure, and if not, why. They can’t get involved in resolving an issue.

Can’t see why folks think a solicitor should be involved. just make an appointment to discuss with the head. The main aim here is to ensure the school review their procedures so it doesn’t happen again.

ilovesooty · 23/02/2020 12:09

@Pud2 precisely.

Tombakersscarf · 23/02/2020 12:09

Seriously mumsnet it's ok for a poster to make a comment comparing this to teachers having heart attacks? We all know that if a trip was delayed because a teacher died on it there would be complaints from parents.

tinytemper66 · 23/02/2020 12:13

I would email the head at the school and tell then what has happened and that you will be in first thing to discuss the seriousness of the matter. Did your son phone you to let you know what had happened?
Hope he is ok.

SuperMeerkat · 23/02/2020 12:20

How come DS didn’t call you? Maybe it wasn’t that bad at first, still fractured of course. I’d say best to get him home ASAP.

user68901 · 23/02/2020 12:24

I broke my wrist on last day of skiing holiday . The cast wasn’t fully enclosed which enabled me to fly home the next day. I’m amazed the school hadn’t got him checked out properly . He must have been in agony.

Gobbycop · 23/02/2020 12:27

So basically they couldn't be bothered with the inconvenience caused if he couldn't fly.

I'd be fucking fuming about this one.