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.

Was this accident in the last week or two, or was it a year or so ago (not clear from your post)

If it's recent then how can you state SAL, surely the child is to young to even jump to that conclusion.

Some children progress at different rates, my friends child stayed mute until he started reception year (now he doesn't shut up).

Would you sue yourself if your child bumped his head in your care (it's easily done and accidents do happen), I doubt the nursery diliberately dropped him.

I’m sorry this happened to you and your son OP.

But I disagree with many other posters. I’m sorry if this worries anyone, but head injuries are sometimes wrongly downplayed by hospitals and medical professionals and it is only more recently that concussions are taken seriously in sports etc.

Even if taken seriously, not all damage is visible on standard CT or MRIs, but may be on fMRI etc. Some damage is to the chemical functioning of the brain, not simply physical damage from bleeding or inflammation. This is all verifiable from many medical sources which are free to access and googleable.

It is not certain thankfully, but it is plausible that a child could sustain injury that has some kind of effect.

We are learning more about concussion and brain injury all the time. For example tests are being developed that aim to reliably detect concussion by analysing proteins released into the blood after injury. I’m sure there are others too. If successful and reliable, this will be a valuable diagnostic tool giving new information to doctors/ paramedics and will tell us more about the frequency of concussion that may be invisible to the eye, or some scans. www.ucsf.edu/news/2019/08/415206/simple-blood-test-unmasks-concussions-absent-ct-scans

None of this makes it easier to know exactly if or how your son has been affected Yokomoyr. I think try other solicitors, especially the larger ones. Also I really recommend contacting Headway the head injury charity for advice if you haven’t already. They are supportive and knowledgeable.

I suspect other solicitors and doctors may tell you to keep notes but wait until he is older and to see if any of his difficulties persist compared to children of his age. I know this may not help you now, but perhaps speaking to the Headway charity might be some support at least

How old is your child, OP?

I see I cross posted with you OP.

Sorry I am slow at writing and typing.

@IveGotASongThatllGetOnYNerves

You would first need to prove that he fell due to their negligence and that the fall caused him damage.

Indeed. You are assuming that the fall caused the speech delay - many children have speech delay.

@Yokomoyr you haven't said how old he is now. The answers will be different depending on age.

In the first instance you need to raise a formal complaint with the nursery and if you aren’t satisfied with their response you should contact ofsted. If they, ofsted, feel there are grounds for investigation they will look into the matter further especially if they consider the nursery has been negligent in any way.

From my professional experience I think it will be extremely difficult to claim against the nursery without the support of medical professionals and/or ofsted because there needs to be proof of a link between the incident and the subsequent language delay. Most issues with language and communication are not apparent until the child is in their second year so this could just be considered coincidental.

I am sorry this has happened can I recommend you take him to a cranial osteo who specialises in babies

So, did you take your child to A&E immediately afterwards? Did they do a brain scan which showed any internal swelling? Where was the bump? Did you take DC back when he was still drowsy days later? Did you lodge a complaint at the time? Did you withdraw him from that nursery immediately? Did you seek legal advice at the time? How old is your child now? What communication problems do they have? Why do you believe the two to be linked? Has your child sustained any other injuries before or after the incident? You need to be a lot more specific here. A couple of links to information on the internet/YouTube is not going to cut it in terms of making a claim. And unless you want some proper advice, you're going to need to address all of the questions above.

Sounds like 1+1=11

He didn’t have a severe head injury. His speech delay may always have been his trajectory.

Doubt you will get far trying to claim compensation for this.

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

But you don't know what examination they have made, @ElizaDarcysDeeds

You're just out for money. No one medical has said there is anything wrong with your child. Get over it.

MNers are incredibly blasé about "accidents happen". I wonder if the reaction would be the same if the child had fractured her skull and had serious bleeding on the brain? Would you all be telling OP to ignore it because "accidents happen" - especially given that this was a totally avoidable accident?

Kids roll off things, bump their heads all the time. If a minor injury like this caused speech delay there wouldn't be a single toddler that could talk. Seriously OTT.

@trama

You're just out for money. No one medical has said there is anything wrong with your child. Get over it.

That allegation simply doesn't hold water. If there was a claim which succeeded OP wouldn't have control of any damages, they would be held solely for the benefit of her child, and would be calculated strictly on the basis of what is needed to compensate the child including covering things like speech and language therapy.

@Droite

MNers are incredibly blasé about "accidents happen". I wonder if the reaction would be the same if the child had fractured her skull and had serious bleeding on the brain? Would you all be telling OP to ignore it because "accidents happen" - especially given that this was a totally avoidable accident?

The accident has happened though and presumably from a complaining to the nursery and ofsted side of things that has been dealt with so procedures can be tightened up to reduce the risk of it happening again. Thankfully in this case the injuries where minor.

This is about the OP putting 2 and 2 together and making 12 to try to look for someone to blame for the speech delay when the views of both medical professionals and legal professionals Is that there is nothing to suggest that is the case.

That allegation simply doesn't hold water. If there was a claim which succeeded OP wouldn't have control of any damages, they would be held solely for the benefit of her child, and would be calculated strictly on the basis of what is needed to compensate the child including covering things like speech and language therapy.

So, free SLT which they might have needed to pay for anyway. Lots of kids have communication delays.

Obviously none of us are able to say whether the incident will have caused the damage you are worried about but I'm shocked that people have replied with "It's just an accident."

No 12 month old should be changed on a changing table, they're simply not meant for children that old who are often very mobile. We actually never bothered buying one because they are only meant to be used for very young babies as they're a liability the minute they start becoming even a bit mobile. Changing mat on the floor all the way. Changing tables are a complete waste of money.

It's really worrying that a nursery would allow a 12 month old to be put on a changing table at all. Do you know if they have now changed their practices? It's really dangerous. I would have reported to Ofsted at the time.

@Droite

MNers are incredibly blasé about "accidents happen". I wonder if the reaction would be the same if the child had fractured her skull and had serious bleeding on the brain? Would you all be telling OP to ignore it because "accidents happen" - especially given that this was a totally avoidable accident?

If the OPs child had a fractured skull and intracranial bleeding there would be a lot more clinical signs then speech delay, picked up long after the even.

OP I’m sorry this happened to you. I’d want to know how it happened and reassurance from nursery that their protocols had changed to stop this happening again. I do agree with PPs though - correlation doesn’t equal causation and unless you suspect serious negligence amongst the health professionals you have seen, the likelihood is the two things aren’t related.

It's understandable that you are feeling worried & overwhelmed, but so you feel this incident might be a "red herring" that you are hanging all your anxiety on?

When bad things happen outside of our control, it's tempting to want to try to regain control by finding some external locus that we can pin 'fault' or causation on.

You say that the nursery have caused a severe head injury - but also say that neither A+E nor GP seemed too concerned.
Unless you are saying that both A&E & the GP have been negligent, both those statements cannot be true.

You've also been told there is no link between your son's communication progress & the nursery accident, so no - it's not going to be feasible to "look into" the nursery or otherwise be awarded financial help for private therapy.

I can appreciate your worry & stress, but suspect you will feel a lot more relaxed when you are able to stop conflating 2 separate events - the accident, & your son's communication delays. I hope your NHS referral comes as quickly as can be managed, & that your son soon catches up on speech & language skills. All kids do this at different speeds, so try not to obsess on it, or look for external factors causing it - for all you know, he will catch up at his own pace & the worry will soon be behind you.

@SoupDragon

That allegation simply doesn't hold water. If there was a claim which succeeded OP wouldn't have control of any damages, they would be held solely for the benefit of her child, and would be calculated strictly on the basis of what is needed to compensate the child including covering things like speech and language therapy.

So, free SLT which they might have needed to pay for anyway. Lots of kids have communication delays.

If it was SLT that would have been needed anyway, then there wouldn't be an award of damages in that respect.

You could report the incident at nursery to Ofsted as a safeguarding concern.

If the OPs child had a fractured skull and intracranial bleeding there would be a lot more clinical signs then speech delay, picked up long after the even.

Way to miss the point. Obviously I'm not saying that is what happened. My point is that the same accident could have caused that sort of injury. If it had, would MNers still be saying OP should forget it?

"A 'bump to his head'? He FELL OFF A CHANGING TABLE"

@Theworldishard Yes.... And sustained a bump on his head. So he bumped his head. Yes it was from a height, but that in itself doesn't automatically equal a more serious injury in babies.

@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 totally agree, first rule of nannying/ nursery assistants,never EVER walk away or reach something further than arm's length and while you do it keep your hand flat on the child's tummy.

I think people saying that OP is just after money are being unfair .She is worried about her DC ,and concerned that a totally avoidable accident may have caused some sort of long term damage. Obviously needs some sort of specialist legal help.