Nursery dropped 12 month old baby off changing table - can any one help?

[Yokomoyr]

[Name redacted by MNHQ] nursery in Birmingham:

During the first 2 hours of the first day of my then 12 month old son being there - they dropped him off a changing table onto a hard floor.

He had a huge lump on his head and was quite drowsy for a week afterwards, but neither A+E nor GP seemed too concerned.

Now he is struggling with communication and when we tried to get a medical examiner and solicitor to help us get some money out of the nursery to pay for Speech and Language Therapy, we have pretty much been told it cannot be linked and nothing has been done.

I would like someone to at least tell me they will look into this nursery or provide some help in the private SLT (as NHS is taking >6 months to refer through) - is that unreasonable?

Put my most precious person in the care of someone else and in an inexcusable moment when full attention was meant to be on him, there was a serious error which lead to a severe head injury in a 1 year old child.

Must admit I feel quite let down.

We just want resolution to this situation

It has been resolved. You just don’t like the resolution.

It might not be your intention, but it comes across slightly as if you cannot bare the idea that your child might not be perfect and, rather than accept that you have a child with issues, you are looking for someone to blame so you can say it’s their fault; that without them your child would have no issues. That’s not fair, on the nursery or the child. Stop chasing the fight you don’t need to have and get help for your child.

OP I mean this kindly, but I think you need to end this now. By all means throw your efforts into helping your sons speech but please stop putting your energies into making this link.

The BMJ article you linked doesn’t prove your point at all-
The major flaw in the study is that hyperactive children are more likely to get head injuries!
Differences were only found in children who needed inpatient hospital stays.
And there was no evidence for cognitive or language changes.

You would be better off speaking to the nursery to ensure that they have followed the correct procedures and then report to OFSTED? If you are not happy, with the outcome, i have a non verbal 11year old, the reasons behind speech delay can be complex, have you spoken to the health visitor about your concerns, has your child had their hearing checked?

OP what classes as a "minor head injury"? Diagnosed concussion? Hairline fracture? You aren't being particularly clear.

It's perfectly normal for older babies and toddlers to have multiple bumps to the head through their lives, the majority of these wouldnt worry anyone. Did your son vomit after the incident? Was he so drowsy you couldnt wake him from a nap? Did he have diagnosed concussion that could explain the drowsiness you fee he experienced?

Tbh it sounds like you just want money. Lots of under 8s have issues with speech and language, you can’t link it to an accident at nursery.

It more than likely isn't related. Children bump their heads, probably 99% of children!
I fainted, fell through a glass panel, smashed my head on the concrete the glass was set in so badly that I then fitted and needed 6 weeks in hospital. No ongoing issues (I had several fits after classed as fitting after a head trauma but nothing since)

Give not answered how,old he is now? Causation and correlation are very different. It will be difficult now given there was no concern from several medical personal at the time, to prove their is a link

Unless he has some brain damage caused by the injury, then I think it’s highly unlikely they’re linked. With regards to speech therapy, the waiting lists are very long in my area, in the end I found resources online and started small activities at home, this really helped my son, we also found out he had glue ear on numerous occasions, which was most likely the reason his speech was delayed.

Sorry but just wanted to say that getting an MRI etc is ridiculous

My dd had an MRI scan because she had speech problems. There had been no injury. I just wanted to add that an MRI scan is not necessarily a ridiculous idea for speech problems.

Your looking for someone to blame when it seems there is no blame to be had. All going round in circles is going to do is make you bitter and angry.

Put that energy into helping your son even more rather than fighting a battle you can’t win

How do you mean look into the nursery? I'm assuming they investigated what happened and logged this accident accordingly? You could complain to Ofsted perhaps. That won't get you any money though.
If you genuinely want a proper investigation, go to the relevant bodies.

Posting something like this on AIBU will automatically bring out the armchair lawyers OP. Have you been in touch with the Child Brain Injury Trust? (CBIT) That’s your best bet. My DD had a head injury when she was 9 at school so I’ve been through the process of getting support and testing a legal case. CBIT are experts; they can also refer you for specialist speech and language help if that’s available within travelling distance. This is such a complex issue and it may well be that your child is absolutely fine but you need proper advice.

But now you are just out for £££s, and that's not going to help anyone except your bank balance.

How is it going to help OP's bank balance given her intention to use it for therapy which her child needs? In practice, if damages were awarded they would be awarded to the child anyway and any use of the money would be overseen independently.

People who complain about compensation culture never seen to educate themselves on how the system works.

I really don't know what you hope to gain on from asking people on here. You have both legal advisors and medical advisors telling you that there is no link. You could try a different solicitor as I'm sure there is someone somewhere who will take on the case, but you'll need to pay with no guarantee of success due to the current medical opinion.

if this happened to an adult at work, or in another setting, or to a child that could talk, we could make a case.

Legally, it’d fail if you couldn’t prove that the incident had caused the outcome. And that’s why your case here has failed.

I’m sorry; it must be very stressful; and a six month waiting list to get help is horrid at the best of times. But the experts can’t link the fall with the speech delay, and so there’s no liability to place. It’s quite possible that even without the fall, you’d be in this situation.

This is a fast path to nothing but I’m wishing you all the best.

Both my children had numerous quite hard head bumps. The skull is quite tough.

Most acquired brain injuries aren't from bumps etc they are from things like meningitis, encephalitis, hydrocephalus, hypoxia etc.

If doctors etc examined your child at the time the injury occurred and weren't concerned you should have faith in their opinion.

Speech and communication issues are SO common, there is absolutely no link between your son's bump and this issue. Negligence cases are notoriously difficult to prove causality - even if they were negligent, it's extremely difficult to say with certainty that that's what has caused this issue now.

@Sirzy

Your looking for someone to blame when it seems there is no blame to be had. All going round in circles is going to do is make you bitter and angry.

Put that energy into helping your son even more rather than fighting a battle you can’t win

Well, clearly there is blame to be had. This sort of accident doesn't happen in a properly run nursery. The question is whether OP can prove damage over and above the initial pain and shock.

Speech and communication issues are SO common, there is absolutely no link between your son's bump and this issue

With every respect, how on earth can you make this claim unless you know and have examined OP's child?

@driftcompatible

No accidents like this do NOT just happen. It's a nursery with several adults in the room. A child should not have been left to fall or roll off a table. There is another adult there to bring them an item like wipes they may have forgot etc. I just can't imagine a scenario in which a child could get an injury like that in a childcare setting which isn't negligent

I agree.

This is a registered nursery with trained, professional staff.
The change table should have a rim to prevent rolling over. Nappies, wipes, creams etc. should be to hand.
There should be no reason whatsoever to leave a child unattended on a change table, even for a moment. Most tables I've seen have this clearly printed.
There's no excuse.

Was it reported to Ofsted?

@Droite

Speech and communication issues are SO common, there is absolutely no link between your son's bump and this issue

With every respect, how on earth can you make this claim unless you know and have examined OP's child?

Because the professionals who have examined the OP's child have said there is no link and she has no case.

I’m sorry this happened to your son, but it doesn’t sound like he had a head injury and I’m struggling to see how the 2 can be linked. In the nicest way possible, it looks like you’re just trying to find someone to blame.

I would be furious if I knew my child was left on a changing unit to fall out, but I think that’s the main issue here and you need to sort that with the nursery, if you haven’t already.

The point being it will be essentially impossible to prove that this injury caused the issue because it's so common for such an issue to arise with no cause.

For the PPs saying the child was left unattended - the OP doesn't say that. DCs can fall from changing tables when adults are beside them. Children wriggle.

GP and A&E, i.e. the medical experts say that there is nothing serious.

Yet, pursuing it through a solicitor for money.

Says it all.

I think as a medical professional. You have no case.
You say they dropped him? I guess he rolled?
I am unsure re the link between speech and language and the bump at all.
He obviously hasn't suffered brain damage so how can they be linked.