DS broke arm at nursery - am I taking this too lightly ?

[Pam270774]

My 4 yr old has been attending a council nursery for the past 2 yrs and I've never had any concerns or worries. Apart from him being a bit clingy and reluctant to go in some mornings there has never been a problem and the nursery staff are all brilliant.

However (!) yesterday afternoon I received a phonecall from the nursery manager about half an hour before he is normally picked up. She said he had been involved in an accident and had hurt his arm and was very distressed. When I asked exactly what had happened she said "Mary (not real name) fell on top of him". I couldn't think of a child in his room called Mary and then realised that she meant one of the nursery nurses who is a rather large lady ! We got him home, gave him some ibuprofen and he went to bed without too much bother and seemed to be moving the arm ok. However he was sore this morning and a bit upset so I took him to A&E where they took and Xray and confirmed that he has broken it and will be in a cast for 4 weeks. I spoke to the woman involved this morning before I took him to hospital and she was very upset and apologetic and she called me later once she'd learned that his arm is in a cast and was even more upset. Whilst I'm angry it happened I know this was an accident and actually felt sorry for her as she was so visibly upset. My wee boy is neither up nor down with the whole thing...However my partner is far from happy and one of his friends even asked him why we aren't considering suing the council ! We had a few cross words at dinner time about this as he seems to think that I'm being too laid back about the whole thing....

I think your reaction was completely sensible and proportionate op. It really annoys me that some people immediately think of suing after what is clearly an unfortunate accident.

If we don't move away from this compensation culture then it will no- longer be cost-effective to run nurseries, play groups etc.

She didn't know he was there, spotted him, tried to make sure he would not be injured, fell over her own feet, and sounds to have been mortified that he got hurt after all. Accidents happen. No reason to sue anyone over it.

Well at the fracture clinic today the doc explained that the xray showed there is quite a significant bend in his arm and felt there was a strong possibility it may need to be manipulated to straighten it, which means surgery. He then took the cast off and was actually surprised by the range of movement my son had in his arm and commented he wouldn't have expected that looking at the xray. So we have another cast on for a further 3 weeks and then back to hospital, hopefully just to get cast off and the arm should be looking straighter. If not then it still might mean surgery. I felt sick today and for the first time since it happened, absolutely f*ing raging with the nursery. And yes I know it was an accident and could have happened at home...but it didn't.

Did the accident report say whether they got medical advice? If an adult had fallen on a child I would expect that to be checked out more thoroughly than a child falling on top of another child.

Ofsted don't require nurseries to do anything other than get medical advice (i.e. get a first aider to look at it) no matter how serious the injury is, so if they did get first aider to look at it procedures wouldn't need to be changed as a result of the incident.

If no-one checked it out I would have concerns.

i agree that it was really silly to be moving large pieces of furniture with children in the room.
i woulkd want strong assurances that it wouldn't happen again

but i wouldn't sue.

what would be the point?

As hard as it may feel to do, I would suggest that you try to put the accident behind you, and focus on your son.

Accident's happen and although this happened while the member of staff was moving a sofa, it could quite easily still have happen if she had just been standing beside the sofa and stepped back.

You will find that if the Nursery has a strong safety focus that their risk assessment has already been updated, to try and ensure that this does not happen again, I am afraid that risk assessments alone will not stop accidents for occurring.

Sparing a thought for the member of staff, I am sure they feel at rock bottom, and helpless to do anything to improve the situation. I am speaking from experience, as a couple of years ago, one morning a child came in to the room to be dropped off, and as she ran over to hug me round the legs from behind, I stepped away not knowing she was there to attend to another child who had decided to try and climb onto a table. The child ended up running head first into the wall her dad who hadn't even signed her in yet, took her straight to A&E (he was a doctor) and it turned out that she had fractured her skull. She was back in the Nursery 2 days later and every time I saw her complete with bump, stitches and bandage my heart sank.

I know that no amount of risk assessments would have stopped that from happening, and even phoned and asked our early years adviser to call in to review the report to see if there was anything I could have in place which would have prevented this.

The child's parent's were great about it, and we ended up having a stronger relation because of it. I have moved on from that Nursery now, and was even sent a photo of the child in her new school uniform when she started school.

I guess this is the long way of saying that if you are still confident in the care the nursery is providing for your son, try and put the accident behind you.