Injury at school. Advice please

[clam]

Does anyone know what the procedure is if a child has suffered a serious injury on school premises (during an organised activity, run by staff)?

Beyond the school's own procedures for getting medical help (which, as it happens were pretty ropey in this case), is there any sort of automatic notification of the county or anyone higher up the system, or is it only if a parent wants to take the matter further?

more details please

eg

state or public school

by serious injury are we talking ambulance called, a trip to hospital, an operation?

OK.

Child falls in PE, crack heard, much pain from leg. Child sent with 2 others to walk (!) to medical room. Think parents notified to take to hosp (i.e. no ambulance). Child sustained serious injury, month off school so far, major surgery needed soon.
No contact from school in this time, not even a "how are they?" call. No work set, and no phone calls requesting this are returned by school. Form tutor will not speak to parents on phone.

What would you do?

i wuldn't do anything

accidents happen .the child hurtt itself, and was taken to hospital.

ambulances should not be called unless it is life threatening, which this wasn't and the child was able to be transported to the hospital

i think it's very unfortunate, but that's life isn't it

useful??

sorry, re-reading nw, i WOULD do something about the lack of communication from school. I would go in and make an appt to see the teacher/head about work coming home and any other issues

sorry, too late

why would it make ANY difference if it was a private/state school? You get a better standard of care in private?
don't get it

pretty disgraceful that school hasn't made contact at all so agree with you there.

but to apportion blame by taking it further? what would you want to achieve?

Very useful, boysarelikehotdogs. Thanks. will forward to friend.

For the record, friend fully accepts it was an accident, but is a bit at the subsequent lock-down by school. My theory is that they're running scared.

State school, since you ask, but not sure how relevant.

This doesn't sound acceptable to me .
Would expect school to implement basic first aid procedures - which from what said would not involve asking child to walk.
And I also don't think it's the norm to only call an ambulance in life threatening circumstances.
As for what one may wish to achieve by taking it further ,I'd have thought that would be the knowledge that the school has learnt that this isn't the way to deal with an injury of this nature and that they've improved their protocols.

I duuno, HH, I was just getting more info before I started googling, there may well be differing procedures.

pardon me for being interested and trying to help

I'm offski

And not sure whether that's correct about only calling an ambulance in life-threatening situations. But maybe someone else knows more than me on that.

Turns out that this child may well have caused further damage to leg by walking on it. Sounds like an on-the-scene assessment should have been made, and a stretcher used.

At the very least, sounds like the school's procedures need re-assessing.

The school should have a first aid policy which should outline the procedures to be followed. This is required by law.

What do you think should have been done differently?

1. the child walked to the medical room rather than stayed put while waiting for an ambulance (given that you couldn't reasonably expect someone in school to stretcher him to the med room). Presumably the child was compliant in this and was actually able to stumble. It is a fine line between encouraging a child to get up quickly and suspecting the worst. I'm sure all of us have urged our toddlers to get up and walk when they have fallen down because this is a good sign that they are not seriously hurt.

2. the parents took the child to hospital rather than have an ambulance do it. Given that the child had not had a heart attack, it was reasonable, surely, to wait for the parents to arrive to offer comfort etc. ? Once the parents were there, then they were pretty much responsible and could have insisted on an ambulance if they felt that was germaine to the injury.

Children get hurt during activities. We all know that children wrapped in cotton wool have a raw deal. Broken bones happen, unfortunately, but the body's defenses allow someone to operate with a broken bone for 30 minutes or so (good old fight or flight mechanism), and pain doesn't kick in straight away. The teacher does not have x-ray eyes or any medical training so can't possibly assess the seriousness of the injury, and should rightly assume that serious injuries are very rare.

As for the school being economical with information - they will do if they suspect that someone is building a case against them.

Our council has very strict procedures, where if anyone is hurt at school and requires a visit to hospital, we have to fill in a very detailed Health & Safety Form and send it off to some team, who review if there is anything that can be done to prevent a similar accident happening again.

We would not normally call an ambulance for a broken bone, unless it the child was in a very bad way (losing conciousness etc). I have a feeling that hospitals will not see a child (unless it's life threatening) without a parents consent, but maybe someone in the medical proffession can confirm this.

I'm suprised by the lack of contact from the school. Even if a child had been hurt outside of school, we would have spoken to the parents and probably asked them to give us a quick update every week or so on how the child is doing. Their class would probably have made get well cards & the teacher probably would have called round for a quick visit.
If a child is going to be off for a while (major surgery etc), the council have a person who reviews the situation & what work they can do at home etc, sometimes they provide a tutor for a few hours a week.

Like wicked says, I suspect that IF the school think a 'case is being built against them'- and let's face it, do you actually KNOW what was said between the school and the parents?- the education people's lawyers would advise the school to only say what was absolutely necessary.

It's a vicious circle. The 'victim' claims all they want is an 'apology' BUT once dialogue begins, the assumption is instantly made that the 'perpetrator' entering INTO dialogue implies an acceptance of responsibility. Suddenly what the victim wants is compensation- since the 'perpetrator' has obviously 'accepted responsibility by apologising'.

I am not for a moment suggesting that your friend is one of these but once a no-win-no-fee lawyer gets his hands onto the case, it can all turn nasty, and BECAUSE of this reality of our modern, litigious lives, schools, like hospitals, batten down the hatches.

Do you know what 'major surgery' the DC is due to have?

I would be concerned that the school didn't follow very basic first aid procedures and I would want that addressed.

It is all very well saying that the child could walk to the medical centre but I would want to know whether any assessment was made to establish whether he should.

I think the school failed in their duty of care to the injured pupil and I would want to ensure that this was properly addressed. Nothing to do with seeking compensation or apportioning blame but more a case of ensuring that the school is safe for its pupils.

A very similar situation happened when dd was in Yr1 to a friend of her. Girl fell heavily and was in serious pain with leg looking very awkward. She was made to walk on it with great difficulty, this exacerbated the nasty fracture she had sustained.

School went into lock-down, wouldn't set work or find out how she was. Parents complained to school then governors then county. Never any suggestion of them wanting to sue, they were just annoyed that there was so little care shown towards their daughter.

Upshot was a review by county - increased first aid training and new procedures in place for when a child sustains an injury or has prolonged absence.

The school should have contacted the Health and Safety Executive to have informed them of the accident. At least thats what happened when someone I know was badly hurt at aschool, well actually the school didn't but the surgeon at the hospital did. School was prosecuted and one of the things was failing to report the accident.

It doesn't sound that bad. Child was taken to hospital - ambulance wasn't needed. If there is a lockdown I am not that surprised when any incident can be 'taken further' by a parent.

I have to add that I suppose I see it from 'the other side'.

I have on more than one occasion heard a mum in the playground bewailing to all and sundry how her DC was injured at school, then was later taken to A&E by the parent, had an Xray, no bony injury seen, a precautionary plaster cast is fitted and they were sent home and you know what? They obviously HAD A FRACTURE all along that the school ignored! MADE him/her WALK or WRITE with that hideous injury!! AND they had to then attend the 'Fracture Clinic' a day or so later (PROOF or said hideous injury)- Then I'd sneak a look at the xray and the report and INVARIABLY no bony injury was seen by a consultant radiologist.

I am not suggesting that a precautionary cast SHOULDN'T sometimes be fitted, if only to give a sprained limb a bit of a chance, but the vast majority are placebos, really! But the danger is the parent then decides the hospital and/or school are obviously covering up since a plaster was put on!