To push school complaint

[Dancebaby1989]

Back story DS is year 5 at juniors (age10) is diagnosed ASD so struggles talking to unknown school staff.
Tuesday morning break he went to office as had bumped into a tree and stuff had gone into his eye- was told it was fine and to go to lesson. He was then sent back to office later in day as eye red, swollen and bothering him was given a cold compress and sent back to lesson again. He come home and eye is extremely swollen and red about an inch all the was round so took straight to walk in centre.
they needed to dremal his eye due to lots of stuff in it and was left with extensive cornea abrasions so hourly eye drops during day first 2 days and follow up at eye casualty today and now drops 4 hourly for a week.
DH says to leave it but I want to make and official complaint as hospital have said the delay in treatment has caused the damage- but obviously I wasn’t even made aware until 4 hours after the even when he come home- plus with his ASD the fact he went to the medical room twice (he has never once been before) indicates how much discomfort he was in.
so AIBU to complain against the member of staff who made this judgement

Update them, let them know what happened.

if I was the member of staff responsible just knowing that would make me feel awful and be enough of a punishment.

my son is ASD as well and this is the type of thing I could see happening to him so I understand why you’re upset.

im glad your boys ok.

What on earth had he done to cause that much damage to his eye? Surely that's not normal just from bumping into a tree?

Lots of dirt/ debris got in his eye and then was left so long was rubbing it as was irradiated

Definately make a complaint to the school. My son with asd got a splinter in his leg when he was in year 6. When I picked him up he was upset and told me his leg was hurting and he'd gone to the medical room, but they'd just put a dressing over it. No one called me or let me know abut it at the end of the day. When we got home and I removed the dressing the splinter (which I thought would be tiny) was actually an ich and a half long with half of it sticking out his leg so you couldn't miss it! I removed it easily with a pair of tweezers, but I was shocked the school had left him with it in his leg.

I went into the school the next morning with splinter and spoke to the Head Receptionist (who was in charge of a lot of things at the school). She was horrified that I hadn't been phoned. I said that I was aware that the first aid person may not have been happy to remove it (there is so much stuff the school say they can't do), but I did expect a phone call to ask me what to do as I would have come straight down the school and sorted it and then poor DS wouldn't have spent 2 hours with it in his leg.

His ASD was relevant because like many ASD children once he'd told an adult if he was told it would be fine and to go back to class, he would not question them or complain, he would do as he was told.

The first aider was spoken to. DS and I recieved an apology and the first aider got sent on a more advanced first aid course so I felt the school did take it seriously. So I think you should complain as I guess there is a chance if you'd been called straight away and got him treatment sooner, then he might not have needed such sever treatment.

If your dc had told you the same story, what would you have done? I know I would have told mine to rinse it and avoid rubbing it. I would not have gone straight to A and E. It's up to you. I am not sure what the point would be. The alternative is to send every child home every time they turn up at sick bay. The staff member made a judgement call and got it wrong. Many people would probably have done and said the same.

I would complain, not sure how much first aid they are allowed to give but surely they could have used an eye wash? That would have (hopefully) cleared out some of the debris?

Absolutely make a complaint. They fell seriously short in their duty of care to your son and the consequences were avoidable. Otherwise the next child will be sent away.
Someone - maybe the whole staff - needs proper first aid training don't you think?

It's an eye, with debris in it, and home rinsing doesn't necessarily clear it. YOU DO NOT TAKE RISKS WITH EYES! Can't believe you are saying that your child's sight would not have been a priority and that seeking trained medical help would not be important to you.

I'm not sure about the complaint, but you need to let them know it has required hospital treatment and referrals.
That should trigger actions on their side. Their response to the information would be the decider about complaints.

I'm not a complainer but would do so in this instance. No risks should be taken with eyes. Any significant foreign stuff in the eye needs irrigating. Hopefully the school will make sure staff know this for the future.

I wouldn’t expect staff to call home for a child bumping into a tree.

I wouldn’t expect a call for ‘just a bump into a tree’ but complaining of eye pain and on the second visit to office as teacher sent him back and has confirmed it was extremely swollen and red about an inch all the way round so clearly bothering the child

You said he was sent to the office, are the office staff first aid trained?
Could you see the debris, easily, in his eye?

Debris could not been seen easily I feel but the redness and swelling was very obvious

I mean can see how the first instance happened and wouldn't feel too aggrieved by that, but definitely going back to the office with a swollen eye they should have absolutely phoned. I'd feedback to them for sure.

The point is OP that anyone with basic first aid knowledge / training knows that eyes are a priority. That your ds went back with worse symptoms and was dismissed is negligent and needs flagging up.

You're not being awkward. You need a proper apology and they need to up their health and safety practices.

Have you let them know what's happened, and what was their reaction?

Because I have 3 dc whose reaction would be totally different. One would have been telling them she was in agony, couldn't cope etc. I'd have had a phone call telling me to go to A&E. The other two would have said they were fine, insisted they were fine, even if they'd even gone to medical in the first place. I've spent many an hour sitting in A&E with the first to be told all was well, not to worry. With the other two if they admit something is a little painful, I start packing bags to go.

With one of the latter two, for example, he came out of school a couple of years ago and I knew from across the car park I was off to A&E from the way he was holding his arm. He'd done it in football. He was insistent it was fine and perhaps an elasticated bandage would make it totally fine.
After some negotiation, eventually he agreed to go to A&E and yes, as I was fairly confident, it was broken.

To cut a long story short I had an apologetic email and telephone call by 9:30am the next morning. He'd told the teacher it wasn't really painful at all, showed them he could do all the movements etc and they were horrified to find that wasn't the case.
I did tell them that he will avoid medical at all costs and nearly didn't have his (very necessary) appendicectomy due to rating it 2/10 on the pain chart, so not to believe him when he says it doesn't hurt!
Even with that knowledge he's come home with a 2" gash due to a stud in the arm-which he'd carefully hid from teachers for most of a day at school. (He was most put out when I told him it needed washing. Apparently it was "clean mud")

So what I'm saying is it does depend on their reaction when they find out that it was more of an issue.
I didn't blame school at all for not spotting as I know he will play it down and hide it. However their reaction when they found out was important. If they had played it down and shrugged "oh well" I would have been much more concerned.

Was the person that dealt with it first aid trained adequately ,or at all? What is the school's policy for sending children home? At DD's old school they won't do it unless a member of SLT approves it , so they can't phone until they find someone . Ridiculous really, as there have been instances when no one was around(small school) and either the child had to wait quite a long time, or staff used their common sense but then got in trouble for not adhering to the policy, especially if it wasn't an obvious issue(like vomiting,fever ,chicken pox etc) and they erred on the side of caution.

I would definitely let the school know of the outcome and how serious it was and ask for a review to see what went wrong.