School gave my daughter wrong dose of her sister's medicine

[aliena]

So I have 3 dd's at the same small school all of whom have extensive food allergies though the eldest (now 15) has outgrown most of hers. The other two have Piriton which is left with the school secretary. DD1 texted me to say that she had tingling lips, itchy throat and swollen lips. Concerned, I rang the school immediately and the secretary asked me how I knew and when I told her DD1 had texted me, she was not at all pleased and said she had already given her a spoonful of DD3's (age 6) piriton. I said that you need to give her two spoons. So in a huff she said well I will give her another spoon then! Meanwhile i phoned my Gp who was concerned and said that we must think about getting her an epipen. When my daughter came home, she told me that her swollen lip had in fact been noticed by the girls in the class AND by her teacher and hence she went to the secretary who "examined her" and told her she couldn't see the swollen lip, only "cold sores" (actually allergic urticaria). She then grudgingly gave her her younger sister's medicine and gave her it without checking the dose (clearly labelled on the bottle and box). My DD1 actually said to her i think it is 2 spoons since that is what she has seen me give her sister (DD2 who is 12) and the secretary without checking, snarled no it isn't. This is why my frightened daughter texted me. She know she had not been given enough. The dose she was given by the school would have been insufficient to halt the allergic reaction. Thank goodness my DD1 texted me.

I then emailed the school asking them me to call me if any of the girls have an allergic reaction in the future so that I could take them to our GP (we are v close to the school) and setting out the correct dosage for each child for future reference since this is not recorded anywhere by the school. I received no response.

Since then the secretary has been vile and aggressive to my eldest DDS (15 and 12) who are quiet, sensitive girls eg leaves her room and slams the door if they go in. They are so upset. And I'm frightened for my little one (aged 6) as well who has another 10 years at the school! I'm worried at what will happen if my girls are ill again. I don't want to give the secretary my DD1's epipen since I don't trust her with it. There is no school nurse. Only her.

She also won't pick up the phone if I call from my phone(she has caller ID) so i find myself calling from other phones and some of my emails apparently go into her spam folder and are therefore not responded to.

Also I don't know why she gave DD1 her sister's medicine without calling me to check that it was ok and dosage. I wish I could have taken DD1 to the GP straightaway that day so it all could have been recorded.

We have a history of anaphylaxsis in the family (me once and my brother several times).

I simply can't go to the head or the governors. Things will only get worse for my girls.

You HAVE to go to the head and talk to her about this. Call the school and insist on being put through, then make an appointment with the head to discuss this fully. Your girls' lives depend on this, so don't let this power hungry secretary bully you.

oh my, a little power goes a long way! think you must go speak to the head about this.

why are you so afraid of this person?
Could you get an official letter from your gp for the school outlining what they should do?
Speak to someone else the head or a govenor it will help

This is appalling. The school should have a clear policy for giving medication and not just letting the secretary decide whether to give it or not.
Demand to see the head

Don't demand anything!

Being aggressive simply irriates people and makes them unnecessarily defensive. Arrange to talk with the Head and express your concerns in a calm and measured way i.e. treat people as you would like to be treated. Bear in mind that you are trying to work with others to the benefit of you children so you what them to be positive about it.

Would I be right in thinking that as the School Secretary is dealing with all ages this is a small independent school? You really have to see the head - if your phone calls aren't being answered go in person or ask to use someone else's phone to get round the caller ID. This behaviour is unacceptable and also unsafe.

You can go to the head. You might not want to but you must.

Actually the school should have called you to come and collect your daughter they should not be administering any medication that isn't prescribed for the child receiving it!

You have to go to the head (or at least head of year) It's your DD's lives at stake here.

I think that this counts as an untoward incident and should be recorded by the school, certainly the Head should be aware.
It could have been medication belonging to another child entirely, imo it is irrelevant that it happened to belong to her sister; the fact is a serious error has been made.
Imagine if another child had been prescribed an entirely different medication that was administered in error to your daughter?
Not so many years ago fully registered nurses had to work in pairs to administer medication (not the case now in most areas) so I am that the secretary is so blase about making a serious error.

Yes mrz I agree. The school should have contact the parent immediately and the parent would have made the decision whether to take further expert medical advice if required.

Is it a private school? - just noticing the range of ages in a "small school". I wonder if they are bound by the same medicine protocols of state schools.

I know at dd's school (state primary) they will give medicine when it has been prescribed for recent illness by a GP. i.e. antibiotics where the child is well again and the course needs to be completed. I'm sure they hold epipens though, and actually, they may have piriton that has been prescribed with dosage and instructions on.

Anyway - that's by the by really - what I'm trying to say I suppose is that the secretary is completely completely wrong and she knows it. The dosage should have been checked and NO WAY should she have given your eldest daughter medicine prescribed for a sibling.

School should have called you.

But they don't actually have to give any medication. There is no legal duty for the school staff - it's quite a difficult area.

Do you have a care plan in place if the children have to have medication? And if one is allergic enough to need an epipen you really need to speak to the school nurse. If it's a state school all schools have access to a school nurse evn if she isn't on site all the time.

I would approach the head about getting it all properly documented for the safety of your children and for the staff.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all your responses. Thank you so much.

Yes it is a small independent school and I don't think that they even have a medicines policy. Perhaps I should ask. Perhaps it is my duty to make sure this doesn't happen again to any child in the school. I have now found out that state schools abide by the Managing Medicines in Schools Protocol which requires the express (preferably written) consent of parents when medication is administered and the checking of dosage and also that a written record is made when the medicine is given and its timing (which also wasn't done so I couldn't be sure when to give the next dose).

Having said all this, the fact remains that I am concerned as to this secretary making my girls' life a misery. Their cards are marked. To make matters worse, I think that the head is in awe of her as well. I suppose I could speak to the head and raise my concerns and ask that they implement a proper policy. I could get my GP to write (and i'm sure he will). But this woman will find out.

Also I don't want her to be responsible for my daughters' health partly because I don't trust her and partly because the girls are terrified of her now and don't want to go to her office even if they do feel ill.

I don't want there to be a further backlash against my girls and a closing of the ranks which I think there will be.

And they don't want to leave their school.

At the end of the day, I think i'm going to have say something aren't I? But maybe only about the facts of that day and not about the secretary's behaviour. Maybe the girls will have to take this as a learning experience as how to deal with difficult unpleasant people.

You do have to say something and i would agree you should make it just about the facts today.

Ask to see the head and ask her to share with your their medicines policy if they have one. Make this about the safety of the children and also incorporate something about the safety of the staff because the bottom line is that if something terrible had happened the head would be responsible; her staff, her responsibility to ensure correct training and procedures. You are doing the secretary a favour in the long run.

You really need to do something in this situation and the head should be informed. I think that the school needs to develop a protocol for medicines and then have staff training on it - not specifically focussing on the secretary. It wouldn't be difficult for the school to adopt the procedures used in state schools. The governors would probably be shocked that medication was dispensed to "the wrong pupil" and not a the prescribed dose by someone without appropriate training. Some schools have resident dragons as secretaries and as you say it is good training for children in how to deal with difficult people.

I'm glad you said some school secretaries are dragons.

Some are very nice people

just for balance our school secretary is lovely. In fact when I have made mistakes with afterschool payments etc she has been apologetic when it is my fault. She is a very respectful and helpful person. :)

I bet the lovely ones outnumber the dragons many times over - I don't mean to insult any school secretaries out there.

:) @ breathe

Do your girls have Care Plans? It sounds like they should have them, if they have extensive alergies.

I am head firstaider at my school and any student that needs medicine above and beyond headache tablets, has to have a regular review with the nurse who comes in weekly. Afterall I am simply 'competent in first aid' with a regularly updated first aid certificate and not a medical professional. I need to know what exactly to do and the nurse and I discuss these things with the parent and student, together.

There must be a nurse from your local authority that comes in from time to time, to see various students with medical needs. Can you call them insted, to ask for a meeting in school, with the school appointed firstaiders?

Thanks Maureen. The school don't ask for care plans just for a list of allergies and medical conditions. DD1 had a care plan (for her first school and very good it was too) from the hospital after she was allergy tested ten years ago but she has outgrown most of her allergies or so I thought until this happened. I will now make sure that the school has care plans for the other two girls.

But I have to know of course that the secretary will look at these plans if she were to have them. After all, she refused to look at the dosage written on the bottle and box of the Piriton even after DD1 said please check because I think that it's two spoons not one. She was in a bad mood that day apparently and probably genuinely thought there was nothing wrong with DD1 other than "cold sores" not realising these were urticaria. I suppose... though why give her any medicine then?

There is no school nurse and the secretary decides who is ill and whose parents are to be called. I think that the head or deputy head can also do this but in reality it is just her.

If I can get the school to agree to call me straightaway if any of the girls are ill so that I can speak to them myself, that would help.

Still think my girls are in for a rough time from her.

What the hell is it with people like this who think they are above everybody else? Worryingly they seem attracted to the kind of job role where it will do the most harm and piss the most people off (school secretary and GP receptionist are top billing I think). (Disclaimer: Not all school secretaries or receptionists are evil bitches, but there does seem to be a disproportionate percentage of 'i know better than you's' within these kind of jobs.)

I think it's bloody disgusting that a school receptionist is in a position to 'decide' what child needs medical treatment. Your 12yo is clearly old enough to understand her needs, but what if this had been the 6yo and the situation reversed. I'm bloody pissed off on your behalf.

Administering medicine to anyone other than the person that it is meant for is extremely serious. Generally in schools medicine has to be named and written permission held to give THAT child the agreed dose at agreed intervals or "as necessary". It is absolutely not up to her to decide to give one child's medicine to another, even if the symptoms are the same. The ONLY correct thing for her to do would be to (a) get emergency medical help if the situation warranted it - eg calling an ambulance or bring the child to a doctor immediately, or (b) if it was not an emergency call a parent/guardian so you could say what you wanted to happen. You need to make a formal complaint - at the least I would expect disciplinary action with training being provided so she could act appropriately in future.